US, European Diplomats To Discuss Iran On Friday In Paris -Sources
The US special envoy for Iran will meet European diplomats in Paris on Friday to discuss stalled Iran nuclear talks, three diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.
The US special envoy for Iran will meet European diplomats in Paris on Friday to discuss stalled Iran nuclear talks, three diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.
While saying for weeks it would return to talks "soon," Iran has yet to announce a date to resume discussions in Vienna about reviving the pact under which it curbed its nuclear program in return for relief from U.S., EU and UN economic sanctions.
Then-US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions. About a year later, Iran started violating some of the deal's limits on uranium enrichment. Enriching uranium can provide a path to obtain the fissile material for an atomic bomb, an ambition Iran denies.
The diplomatic sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley would meet with the political directors of the British, French and German foreign ministries, a group know as the E3, in Paris on Friday.
One of the sources said he hoped the meeting would provide some clarity on how world powers might act in the coming weeks if Iran continued to "buy time" and delay returning to Vienna. US officials have said time is running out to revive the deal.
Report by Reuters
Rob Malley had earlier been to Qatar in a tour conferring with Arab Gulf states. The Saudi news agency SPA reported the envoy met with Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, Saudi foreign minister, in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss both the nuclear talks and "joint action to stop Iranian support for terrorist militias."
In an interview October 13 Malley reiterated that the US wanted to revive the 2015 deal − the JCPOA, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action − in its original form rather than attach new conditions over regional defense and security.
Saudi Arabia, which opposed the JCPOA and backed former president Donald Trump in leaving the deal in 2018, wants the US to introduce new issues, including Iran’s missile program and links with regional allies. Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposing sides in Syria and Yemen, and Riyadh has never reconciled itself to Iran’s increased influence in Iraq since the US-led 2003 invasion topped Saddam Hussein.
Saudi Arabia has tempered its approach since US president Joe Biden took office in January committed to restoring the JCPOA and has held a series of exploratory talks with Iran in Baghdad designed to explore easing tensions.
But with JCPOA talks in Vienna suspended since June, first for Iran’s presidential election and then the transition, and with the difficulties the talks had faced in reaching agreement, Saudi Arabia and the US may be mulling alternatives should the talks fail.
Malley has said Washington is ready to consider "all options," while Prince Faisal last week warned of a "dangerous" acceleration in Iran's nuclear program.
The Vienna talks struggled to agree which US sanctions − including the ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions levied by Trump in 2018 − violate the JCPOA and exactly how Iran should bring back within JCPOA limits its nuclear program, which it has expanded quantitatively and qualitatively since 2019.
Analysts’ chatter around the talks has suggested that the US might look to include Iran’s regional role in talks, or at least seek Tehran’s commitment to ‘follow-on’ talks. There have also been reports that Tehran wants concrete guarantees that the US would not again walk away from an agreement it first signed and then voted for in the United Nations Security Council.
A day after meeting Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Grossi was invited to the Senate by Chairman of the Committee Sen. Bob Menedez, where around a dozen Senators had an opportunity to discuss Iran’s lack of full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with director general Grossi.
Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) issued a statement after the meeting saying, “Iran continues to steadily advance its nuclear program, while violating its international obligations and preventing the IAEA from fulfilling its monitoring responsibilities. Its failure to provide credible answers to the IAEA’s questions regarding its undeclared nuclear sites is unacceptable. Today, I thanked Director General Grossi for his strong leadership in pursuing the IAEA’s investigation into these sites, and urged him to continue to press Iran until it provides all required information.”
Republicans who have been sceptical of the Biden Administration’s diplomatic approach to Iran and have repeatedly urged not to make concessions to Tehran see the lack of cooperation with IAEA as proof that the Islamic Republic cannot be trusted.
In the September IAEA Board of Governors meeting, Grossi had already issued a report accusing Iran of lack of cooperation both in accounting for its past nuclear activities and also in current monitoring efforts by UN’s nuclear watchdog. However, the United States and its European allied known as E3 decided not to pursue a resolution to condemn Iran.
Senator Risch in his statement demanded a tougher approach in the next board meeting. “I also stressed the importance of taking strong action in advance of the November Board of Governors meeting, and to prepare to censure and refer Iran. President Biden should finally recognize that Iran is not interested in any agreement that would protect the interests of the United States and our allies. The…legitimacy of the IAEA depends on strong U.S. leadership in seeking accountability for Iran’s nuclear activities, and in pressuring Iran to fulfil its obligations to the international community.”
In a tweet the Senator also thanked Grossi for his “leadership in IAEA’s investigation” and the need “to hold Iran accountable”.
On Monday, Grossi in an interview with the Financial Times stressed that he needs to visit Iran again and have an urgent meeting “at the political level”, meaning with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. In his previous trip in September Grossi met with Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami, who is also vice president to Ebrahim Raisi.
Grossi told the Financial Times that a temporary arrangement for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor Iran’s nuclear sites was no longer “intact.” Iran restricted IAEA’s monitoring in February after its parliament passed a law demanding the lifting of US sanctions or reduced Iranian cooperation.
IAEA access in Iran is currently under a temporary arrangement reached September 12, but Grossi has expressed concern at Iran’s decision September 16 not to allow the changing of memory cards of monitoring cameras at the Tesa Karaj site, where Iran makes centrifuges used for enriching uranium.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported Monday that the additional money set to be approved by the government in November, would pay for aircraft, intelligence-gathering drones and armaments needed for a strike against hardened Iranian nuclear targets.
US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have mentioned “other options” if Iran refuses to return to nuclear talks. Tehran suspended the Vienna negotiations in June after the election of Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi), a hardliner handpicked by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Although ‘other options’ could mean taking Iran’s case to the UN Security Council for imposing international sanctions, or simply augmenting US sanctions, Israel has been much more adamant that Tehran’s nuclear program should be stopped at any cost. Estimates vary about when Iran could reach the nuclear threshold for a bomb, but both the West and regional countries are concerned that Tehran is building up its stockpile of enriched uranium, while refusing to negotiate.
Israeli officials have warned on several occasions since August that if no options are left they would "go it alone" to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. That could mean that Israel might not even tolerate Iran becoming a "threshold state", meaning having all the components for a bomb but not actually deploying one.
The US Air Force reported on October 13 that a new 5,000-pound bunker-buster munition was successfully tested by an F-15E Strike Eagle warplane on October 7. This means that the bomb can be launched from fighter planes and could be potentially used by Israel. The GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator was released from 35,000 feet and hit a designated area “surrounded by blast pressure sensors and fragment-counting equipment,” which helps to determine the weapon’s lethality, the Air Force said.
Channel 12 speculated that the US Air Force test was meant to be a warning to Iran not to avoid the nuclear talks. Last week, Iran said it wants to hold discussions with the European Union in Brussels before any return to the main nuclear negotiations, but the State Department on Monday dismissed the idea, saying such talks are not needed. Apparently, Tehran wanted to start a new negotiating tactic that would exclude Washington. In the Vienna Talks the US was present and negotiated indirectly with Iran.
Any conflict with Iran could easily escalate into a separate war with the Lebanese Hezbollah Shiite militant group. A senior Israeli military official said on Monday that Hezbollah can fire 2,000 rockets a day at Israel if conflict breaks out. The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah also warned his opponents in Lebanon that it has 100,000 fighters, after a brief gun battle in Beirut last week.
