US Says Ready To Revive Iran Nuclear Deal Based On EU Proposals

The Depp lookalike is reportedly identified as Amin Sa'les, who apparently does some modelling gigs thanks to his uncanny resemblance to the American actor.

Sa'les lives in Iran and is reportedly from the north-western city of Tabriz. His modelling work is with local agencies.

Huge gatherings have been held in Iran and some other Muslim countries in the past 10 days, the first days of the first month of the Islamic calendar, to commemorate the third Shiite Imam Hussain.

Such ceremonies are vastly popular among Iranians as they are complemented by copious supplies of free food and drinks, known as nazri. They are given free by individuals and groups at kiosks called heyats set up all over the country.

The highlight of the month-long ceremonies of Muharram are the Days of Tasu'a and Ashura, the anniversary of the slaying of Shiite Imam Hussein and his 72 companions by his rivals to the leadership of Muslims in the 7th century.

Ceremonies have been held for centuries in Iran and among Shiites in other countries, marking the event in the 680 AD battle of Karbala, in present-day Iraq, and have gained greater state support since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

European officials described the document to journalists as a ‘take it or leave it’ offer for both sides. One told Iran International that Enrique Mora, the European Union official coordinating talks in the Austrian capital since Thursday, had circulated a “final text…with all the necessary points to put into action.” Another European official told AFP that the text was “not subject to further negotiations” and that a result was expected in “the next few weeks.”

By contrast, the official IRNA news agency portrayed Mora’s text as “some ideas concerning some of the remaining issues.” IRNA said that “four rounds of talks” in Vienna had seen “relative progress in some issues,” while Mora’s proposals required “further and more complex examination” before Iran gave its “opinions and observations to the coordinator [Mora] and other parties.”

Iran’s Nour News, which is affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council, denied a report that the text would be finalized within hours.

The US State Department told Iran International that Washington will "now await the EU’s next steps" and added, "we stand ready to quickly conclude a deal on the basis of the EU’s proposals."

Discussions in Vienna began Thursday after the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in late July circulated a text designed to bridge gaps between Iran and the US over restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Nearly a year of multilateral talks in Vienna, April 2021-March 2022, and June’s bilateral United States-Iran meeting in Qatar, failed to agree which US sanctions, introduced after 2018 when Washington left the JCPOA, breached the agreement, and how Iran should return its nuclear program, developed after 2019, to JCPOA limits.

‘Swift decisions’

In a newspaper article July 26, Borrell said the time had come for “swift political decisions” as “the space for additional significant compromises has been exhausted.” But while European officials stressed Borrell’s text was a last chance to restore the JCPOA, Vienna brought days of intense discussions, political and technical, as EU diplomats scurried between the two different hotels along Vienna’s historic Ringstrasse where the American and Iranian delegations were based.

Reports emerging from the talks suggested the substantive remaining points were guarantees sought by Iran of access to world markets as required under the JCPOA, and continuing enquiries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into nuclear work carried out by Iran before 2003.

The European official speaking to Iran International reiterated the EU’s position that these enquiries, over unexplained uranium traces found at several sites, are ‘technical’ matters within the IAEA’s remit and unrelated to the JCPOA talks. Tehran argues that the agency in 2015 issued a conclusive report on Iran’s pre-2003 work and revived the matter only after allegations made by Israel.

The latest Vienna talks have essentially been between Iran and the US with the EU coordinating. Other JCPOA signatories – China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom – have sat aside while holding some bilateral meetings to renew progress.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s IAEA ambassador, tweeted Monday that “the participants in the Vienna talks now needed to decide if the draft is acceptable.” He put “the final text” in quotation marks.

According to reports by Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya and other Arabic-language news outlets, dozens of Houthi militants were also killed as the blast triggered a second explosion in a nearby factory and weapons depot near Yemen’s capital Sa’ana.

Yemeni websites also quoted a military source as saying that these explosions were caused by the unsuccessful launch of a missile from the Al-Hafa military base by Houthi militias.

Later in the day, Yemen’s internationally recognized government accused the Iran-backed Houthis of not abiding by a key element in a UN-brokered truce to reopen roads to the besieged city of Taiz, saying the group was “running away” from its commitments.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak also said in a news conference in Amman that his Aden-based government supports any move to expand the truce beyond the latest two-month extension to a durable peace deal.

The Houthis receives military and political support from Iran in their conflict with other Yemenis backed who are backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2014. Iran has been sharing its missile and drone technology with Yemen’s Houthis and has also supplied other proxy forces, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias.

The United States, its Western allies and others blame Iran’s drones and missiles for attacks by Houthis on Saudi and Emirati energy facilities.

Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi, a member of parliament’s foreign policy and national security committee, told the government’s official news website IRNA that it is the West that should act “rationally” in the nuclear negotiations.

“We hope that the West will understand the Islamic Republic’s message,” Rahimi a member of the hardliner majority in parliament said, “because [we] will not dismantle our nuclear installations or reduce our [uranium] enrichment.” He vowed to keep the uranium, which Iran has enriched to 20 and 60-percent, and not accept international monitoring beyond the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, without the West giving a series of guarantees.

First, the United States and Europe must provide a guarantee not to leave the nuclear deal. They must also guarantee that oil export revenues reach the Iranian government.

Iran has been emphasizing the issue of a guarantee by the US to stay in a new nuclear agreement even before multilateral talks started in April 2021. Tehran’s argument is that former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and Iran needs assurance that this will not happen again.

However, no US president can provide such a guarantee if an agreement is not a formal treaty, which would need Senate ratification – an almost impossible task with the highly controversial JCPOA.

Iranian officials have also demanded a host of other guarantees, including a pledge by the West that Iran would be able to attract foreign investments if it agrees to limit its nuclear program. The United States has promised to lift its oil export and banking sanctions, but no one can guarantee if Iran would receive foreign investments.

Rahimi told IRNA that the West does not realize that the world has changed and countries like China or Iran will not carry out their orders. “Iran, in terms of military, political and economic power is not a weak state to be subservient to the West, but Westerners look at the world as though it is still the 18th or 19th centuries…”

The Wall Street Journal on Sunday cited the European Union's coordinator of the talks, Enrique Mora, as saying the negotiations to restore the JCPOA are close to completion, but it remained unclear whether Tehran will accept the final deal. The text of a deal could be closed in the coming hours, Mora had said. An unnamed Iranian foreign ministry official denied the report.

“Given the continuation of discussions on some remaining important issues, we’re not yet at a stage to finalize the text. “We believe that Vienna Talks can be concluded soon provided that the other party makes an appropriate decision. But we are not at that stage yet,” IRNA quoted the official as saying.

After sixteen months of negotiations, diplomats gathered in Vienna last week for what some said was a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement. Apparently, Iran insists on receiving guarantees and also demands that an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency of its past secret nuclear work be shelved.

Rahimi also said that despite its capabilities in enriching uranium, Tehran is ready for talks to resolve the issue but “the problem Iran has with Western countries is the degree of their understanding of global realities.”

While the Shiite mourning ceremonies were held privately for Ali Khamenei, similar to the past two years in fear of the spread of the coronavirus, authorities did not announce any measures for the large gatherings across the country.

The highlight of the month-long ceremonies of Muharram are the Days of Tasu'a and Ashura, the anniversary of the slaying of Shiite Imam Hussein and his 72 companions. Ceremonies have been held for centuries in Iran and among Shiites in other countries, marking the event in the 680 AD battle of Karbala, in present-day Iraq, and have gained greater state support since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The number of infections and deaths caused by the virus has doubled in the last two weeks, and it is expected that this upward trend will continue in the coming days. The Health Ministry said the number of new patients on Sunday, August 9, was at around 5,500 and the death toll at 63.

In July, the government organized a “10-kilometer-long” ceremony to celebrate a religious holiday in Tehran as health authorities had announced the seventh wave of the pandemic.

According to epidemiologists, two new subvariant of Omicron, namely BA4 and BA5 -- which started in the African continent -- may soon prevail over the country.

The number of overall deaths in Iran since Covid-19 emerged in February 2020 has been 300,000 higher than in previous years, suggesting pandemic deaths may be more than officially reported.

Iran has reported nearly 143,000 deaths from Covid, the Middle East’s highest official level, leaving 160,000 more deaths unexplained.