Diplomats Whirl In Meetings As Iran Nuclear Talks Restart

According to information obtained by Iran International, Saeed Borji is working to develop nuclear detonators for the ministry’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research -- or SPND. 

A protege of the once-top Iranian nuclear weapons scientist and a senior member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh -- who was assassinated in November 2020 – Borji runs a front company named Azar Afrouz Saeed Engineering Company, specializing in explosives. The company is a subsidiary of SPND. 

The explosives and metals expert for Shahid Karimi Group, also a subsidiary of SPND, has been associated with "possible military dimensions of the Iranian nuclear program," according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and has assisted SPND’s efforts to procure equipment used for containing explosions.

Borji, who has a PhD in chemical engineering from Malek Ashtar University of Technology, has previously worked in Parchin military complex with Russian-born former Soviet scientist Vyacheslav Danilenko – with an extensive expertise in the development of nuclear detonators – and Vladimir Padalko on projects about explosive chambers for nuclear weapons. 

The Abadeh site is an important site for conducting large-scale high explosive tests for developing nuclear weapons under the Amad Plan, which was Iran’s project during the early 2000s to build five nuclear weapons and later was reoriented to a smaller, better camouflaged nuclear weapons program. Abadeh was first identified as a weapons site in October 2019 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The site was built in the mid-1990s by companies controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

The Abadeh site also called Marivan site in the southwestern Fars province, is one of the places that the IAEA found traces of undeclared uranium and demanded explanation from the Islamic Republic. Iran said the origin of the particles is "unknown" and insisted the site was used for "the exploitation of fireclay through a contract with a foreign company decades ago."

Borji was sanction by the United States on March 22, 2019 as a Specially Designated National (SDN) by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) pursuant to Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery system. 

Late in July, two Telegram channels with links to IRGC suggested that Iran may build nuclear warheads “in the shortest possible time” if attacked by the US or Israel, which has repeatedly threatened in recent months to use all means at its disposal to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threat, and has said its armed forces are preparing for action if necessary.

“The nuclear facilities of Fordow have been built deep under mountains of Iran and are protected against trench-busting bombs and even nuclear explosion… all infrastructures required for nuclear breakout have been prepared in it,” the video by Bisimchi Media (Radioman Media) Telegram channel said while adding that the facilities at Natanz may be highly vulnerable to a possible attack by Western powers and Israel but Fordow will immediately assume war footing and begin the nuclear breakout project within a short time if Natanz comes under missile attack.

EMAD, another form of an earlier weapons program, AMAD, refers to Iran’s purported secret nuclear effort, which started in 1989 under the leadership of Fakhrizadeh and according to the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, stopped in 2003. According to a IAEA director general’s report in 2015, Iran specifically denied the existence of the AMAD Plan and the ‘Orchid Office’ as elements of such a program.

Iran has now enough uranium enriched to 60 percent purity and if further enriched to 90 percent, the fissile material will be sufficient for a nuclear bomb within a few weeks.

“Our expectations are in check, but the United States welcomes EU [European Union] efforts and is prepared for a good faith attempt to reach a deal,” Rob Malley, the US special envoy for Iran and lead nuclear negotiator, wrote on Twitter. “It will shortly be clear if Iran is prepared for the same.”

“[Iranian negotiator Ali] Bagheri Kani will leave Tehran in a few hours,” said Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani in Tehran. “In this round of talks, which will be held as usual with the co-ordination of the European Union, ideas presented by different sides will be discussed.”

The talks are expected to focus on a written text submitted July 20 by Joseph Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief. The resumption of talks aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) was announced earlier Wednesday by Enrique Mora, the senior EU official who coordinated year-long Vienna meetings between Iran and six world powers, which paused in March.

‘Ominous legacy’

“Heading to Vienna to advance the negotiations,” Bagheri Kani tweeted. “The onus is on those who breached the deal & have failed to distance from ominous legacy…The US must seize the opportunity offered by the JCPOA partners’ generosity; ball is in their court to show maturity & act responsibly.”

But on August 1 Iran said it started feeding fuel into “hundreds” more IR-1 & IR-6 centrifuges – devices used to enrich uranium – as part of a plan for a capacity of at least 190,000 SWU (separative work units), a measurement of efficiency in enrichment. Under the JCPOA Iran was allowed only 6,104 of the less advanced 6,104 and no IR-6s.

It is as unclear whether the resumed talks will resume the Vienna set-up – with formal, direct talks involving Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom; and with the US participating indirectly.

Reuters quoted one un-named Iranian official that the talks would be “in the format of the Doha meeting,” referring to June’s two-day indirect bilateral US-Iran talks in the Qatari capital, when the US and Iran conferred through EU mediator. Tehran has ruled out face-to-face meetings.

Russia ‘ready for talks’

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), suggested in a tweet that the talks were restoring the Vienna process “after a break” of five months with Russian negotiators were “ready for constructive talks in order to finalise [sic] the agreement.”

Both the Vienna talks and the Doha round failed to bridge gaps between the US and Iran over which American sanctions violate the JCPOA and should be lifted for Iran to downsize its nuclear program to JCPOA limits. The US left the JCPOA in 2018, imposing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions and prompting Iran by 2019 to begin expanding its atomic work and to reduce IAEA monitoring to that is required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

With the US and Iran blaming each other for lack of agreement over renewing the JCPOA, Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said Wednesday that Tehran saw no reason to accept any of the deal’s limits. The US Treasury has also in recent days announced further action, under ‘maximum pressure’ powers introduced by President Donald Trump, to sanction companies from China, the Emirates and Singapore it said were involved in exporting Iranian petrochemicals.

Analyst and former diplomat Ali Bigdeli said in an interview with Didban Iran [Iran Monitor] website: “Thanks to its knowledge of the requirements for bomb making, the West knows that Iran is not about to build a nuclear weapon.”

At the same time, he said such statements are simply rhetoric and they do not reflect Iran’s political position. The latest comments about Iran’s capabilities came from nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami and lawmaker Mohammad Reza Sabbaghian who said on Monday that “If the West’s outrageous behavior continues, we will ask the Supreme Leader to reverse his ban on making nuclear bombs.”

Bigdeli said that such comments are attempts that could be defined as sabre rattling by Iranian officials with the aim of getting concessions in nuclear talks. But the West does not react to those comments despite the excitement created by the media. He said those comments are not likely to change the West’s view about the negotiations.

Bigdeli also opined, however, that the Israel's provocative remarks about an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities should be taken seriously although such an attack would be foolish. Israelis cannot do anything against Iran without US support he argued and added that Washington would not welcome a war in the region while there is a war in Ukraine. So, Israel is bluffing.

The analyst went on to say Iran’s biggest problem is that its chief negotiator Ali Basgheri-Kani is not flexible and knowledgeable enough in his role.

Meanwhile, in a commentary published on Monday, conservative Nameh News website suggested that Iran should not miss the new opportunity for reaching an agreement with the United States based on the proposal made by EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell.

The website wrote that although most Iranian conservative media are adamant that Tehran should insist on it maximal demands, this could be a risky approach if it is not combined with intelligent efforts by the negotiators.

The commentary expressed optimism that the upcoming meeting between Bagheri and his EU counterpart Enrique Mora in Vienna can pave the way for the revival of the JCPOA.

Nameh News at the same time pointed out that some Iranian conservative media have opined that if Iran can expand its ties with Russia, China, Venezuela, Iraq and India, then it will no longer need to sit at the negotiating table with the United States. The daily concluded that the clock is ticking in Iran’s favor.

This comes while many politicians and analysts believe Iran is in a dire economic situation and badly needs a rapprochement with the United States as a requirement for lifting the sanctions and improving the economy.

On Monday, Iranian lawmaker Ghasemfar Saedi said in an interview with Rouydad24 news website that Iranians are losing their patience and government officials need to take the realities of the society into account while making decisions.

Saedi also called on government spokesman Ali Bahadori to apologize for saying that Iranians are very patient vis-a-vis economic problems.

“On the contrary, the people’s patience is wearing seriously thin in this regard,” said the lawmaker. He added that the Raisi administration should come to its senses before it is too late and begin to control the markets as the people are really worried about their livelihood.

“The government’s performance has led to a decline in people’s trust in the government and their hope in the future.”

“On my way to Vienna to discuss JCPOA back to full implementation on the basis of the coordinator’s text tabled on 20 July,” Enrique Mora tweeted. Axios website cited a US official confirming the US and Iran would “resume indirect talks” Thursday.

The European foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell has circulated written proposals for concluding year-long Vienna talks between Iran and world powers, paused in March, aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Neither these talks, nor a bilateral round in Qatar in June, bridged differences between Iran and the United States.

Mora’s tweet did not explain whether resumed Vienna talks would involve all earlier participants – China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom, as well as Iran and the US. All have ambassadors to United Nations bodies in Vienna who cover the International Atomic Energy Agency. In neither the Vienna nor Qatar negotiations did American and Iranian officials meet, with contacts mediated largely by European officials.

“We are headed back to Vienna with low expectations but are going to make a good faith effort,” the US official told Axios. President Joe Biden, who faces domestic criticism over his approach to Iran, has recently tightened sanctions, while Borrell in a Financial Times article July 26 suggested his new text offered “the best possible deal” and that “decisions need to be taken now.”

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told a cabinet meeting that June’s removal of some cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency was in line with the parliament decision, taken in December 2020 , to reduce agency monitoring to that required by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) rather than the extensive monitoring required under the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

“When the other side is not in JCPOA, we have no reason to abide by a quasi-obsolete commitment,” Eslami said. “The cameras will not go back until they return to JCPOA and stop making false accusations.”

The United States – which left the JCPOA in 2018, imposing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions – and three European states successfully moved a resolution at the IAEA board in June censuring Iran over what the agency regards as unsatisfactory explanations of pre-2003 nuclear work.

Eslami stressed that following legislation passed in December 2020, Iran had begun using “advanced centrifuges,” devices used for uranium enrichment barred under the JCPOA. “We will not shy away from any action aimed at removing sanctions,” Eslami said.

Agency informed on nuclear expansion

During a press briefing in New York Tuesday evening, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA director-general, was asked by Iran International’s Maryam Rahmati about Eslami’s statement earlier Tuesday that Iran was preparing new centrifuges, including relatively advanced IR-6s.

Grossi confirmed Iran had briefed the IAEA. “Our inspectors are mobilized and they are going to be looking into this when this happens,” he said. “Not all of them have been prepared – just part of them – and we are going to be informing the Board of Governors soon about this.”

Grossi reiterated that the agency’s “visibility” had been “significantly reduced” by Iran’s decision in June to remove 27 cameras in “certain facilities.” He expressed particular concern over the agency’s lack of knowledge of Iran’s manufacturing activities – where access is not required under the JCPOA. “We will have to come to terms with Iran to account for them when, if and when, they agree on reviving the JCPOA,” Grossi said.

Knowledge of the amount and kinds of centrifuges manufactured, even if not in use, is seen by the agency as important part in assessing the nuclear program, particularly with Iran enriching to 60 percent, close to 90 percent ‘weapons grade’ and far above the 3.67 percent JCPOA limit.

IRGC designation

In Washington Tuesday, John Kirby, the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, in a press briefing largely about the US drone strike killing Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda leader, in Afghanistan, reiterated President Joe Biden’s commitment not to lift the US Foreign Terrorist Organization’ (FTO) designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as part of negotiations to restore the JCPOA.

Eslami said at the cabinet meeting that the designation had “not been the main issue in the talks.” Disagreements between Iran and the US over JCPOA restoration – both in year-long talks in Vienna paused in March, and in the June round in Qatar – have centered on which US sanctions violate the 2015 agreement. Tehran argues that the administration of President Donald Trump introduced sanctions under various rubrics, including the IRGC designation. as part of its ‘maximum pressure.’