US Reiterates Direct Talks With Iran Would Facilitate Diplomacy

Enrique Mora who arrived in Tehran on Tuesday met with Ali Bagheri-Kani and photos published showed a somewhat somber-faced Mora shaking hands with the smiling Iranian diplomat, but with no news about the results of the meeting until late evening in Iran.

In a tweet before the meeting, Iran’s foreign ministry emphasized both circumventing United States’ sanctions and removing them through an agreement. But it warned that Tehran’s “red lines” must be respected in any “lasting and good agreement.”

Fars news website, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, in a long article Wednesday morning, listed all the “violations” and “lack of commitment” by Europeans to the 2015 nuclear agreement, JCPOA, when they failed to honor its economic benefits for Iran.

The article coincided with the announcement that Iran’s intelligence ministry has arrested to “European nationals” for visiting the country to foment unrest, especially among disgruntled teachers. Hardline news websites publishing the news provided no details.

Mora, before departing for Tehran on Tuesday, tweeted that he would be discussing both the revival of the nuclear talks and “other issues”. Iran has been threatening Sweden for the long trial of a former judicial official who was arrested in Stockholm for his alleged role in the killing of thousands of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. A verdict is expected in the case in July and Swedish prosecutors have demanded the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

There is also the case of a former Iranian diplomat who is serving a 20-year prison term in Belgium for organizing a plot to bomb an opposition rally in France. Iran also demands his release.

On Tuesday Tehran ruled out any prisoner exchange with Europe as it says it will execute Hamidreza Djalali, a Swedish Iranian dual citizen, who was arrested in 2016 on a visit to an Iranian university and convicted on alleged “espionage for Israel.”

Therefore, Mora’s visit to Tehran could be as much about prisoners as to find a common ground to jump start the JCPOA talks stalled since mid-March.

However, Iran is facing a worsening economic crisis, as food price inflation accelerated this month and market chaos threatens political instability. To what extent Tehran is willing to risk survival with US sanctions in the absence of a nuclear agreement, is not clear.

Meanwhile, Fars published another article arguing that three foreign visits, starting with the trip of the Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau last Saturday, Mora’s visit on Wednesday and the upcoming visit of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, all had a common thread.

Fars argued that Europe needs natural gas in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the main purpose of these dignitaries is to find ways for Iran to export gas to Europe. The theory however has one problem. Iran does not have enough natural gas for its own domestic consumption, and it would take years to inject capital and technology to tap into its vast reserves and achieve a significant volume of exports.

The public relations office of the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the two Europeans, who had entered the country with the aim of provoking public outrage through changing the direction of normal popular demands into chaos, social disorder and destabilization of society, were identified and arrested by the intelligence forces.

The statement by the ministry did not provide any details about their nationality or how and when they were arrested, but apparently, they came from the same country.

It added that the two main elements of the mission -- organized by intelligence agencies -- were experts in the field of riot and instability and have experience in training their local agents in several countries over the years.

The statement also mentioned the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations as one of the circles with whom the two had held meetings. The council has been the organizer of several rounds of nationwide protests since last year, prompting speculations that the announcement can be a measure to link teachers’ protests to foreign intelligence agencies to justify the heavy-handed crackdown.

The timing of the announcement also suggests that it can also be an attempt to exert pressure on European countries over the case of a former officials who is facing a court verduct in Sweden.

On Tuesday, a Belgian court also dismissed appeals by three accomplices of an Iranian diplomat who was convicted of plotting to bomb an opposition rally in France in 2018.

Iran and the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had agreed a three-month plan on March 5 for a series of exchanges for Iran to clarify remaining questions about uranium particles found in old sites kept secret from the IAEA. Following that process, the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi was supposed "to report his conclusion by the June 2022 (IAEA) Board of Governors" meeting, which begins on June 6.

However, Western diplomats have said there is little sign that Tehran has given satisfactory answers to the watchdog.

Talks to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have stalled since March, chiefly over Tehran's insistence that Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

While not technically part of the nuclear deal, one issue causing tension and distrust between Tehran and the West had been Iran's demand for the closure of the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation into uranium particles found at three apparently old but undeclared sites.

Those sites suggest that Iran had nuclear material there that it did not declare to the agency.

Speaking to the EU parliament, Grossi said he remained extremely concerned by the situation and had told Iran that he found it difficult to imagine that the nuclear deal could be finalized if the IAEA had serious doubts about things that it should have known about.

"I am not trying to pass an alarmist message that we are at a dead end, but the situation does not look very good. Iran has not been forthcoming in the type of information we need from them," Grossi told European Parliament committees via webstream.

It has been four years since Israel revealed it had stolen old nuclear archives from a warehouse near Tehran, renewing accusations that Iran was secretly developing plans to build nuclear weapons. The IAEA has been long trying to get a full explanation from Tehran after it was allowed an inspection of the sites and traces of radioactive material was found.

The EU's Iran nuclear talks coordinator Enrique Mora arrives in Tehran on Tuesday in what he has described as the last bullet to save the diplomatic process to revie the 2015 nuclear deal, which also includes Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

The Iranian government still says it stands on its “red lines” and demands lifting of US sanctions not directly related to the nuclear dispute. Pundits in Iran are pessimistic over Mora’s chances of making a breakthrough in his visit to Tehran.

Western officials have largely lost hope that it can be resurrected, sources familiar with the matter said, forcing them to weigh how to limit Iran's atomic program even as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has divided the big powers.

In the absence of an agreement to revive the JCPOA, Iran's economy has been gripped by chaos of rising food prices and possible political instability.

"We are, of course, still hopeful that some agreement is going to be reached within a reasonable time frame, although we have to recognise the fact that the window of opportunity could be closed any anytime," Grossi said.

Based on reporting by Reuters

Documents cited by the agency suggested at least 200,000 barrels of Iranian crude arrived in mid-April at the Cardon refinery, Venezuela's second largest, which processes 310,000 barrels per day (bpd), with another 400,000 barrels discharging this week at the country's Jose port from the tanker (VLCC) Dino I.

Fars News Agency recently reported that under a new agreement reached under Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran had exported to Venezuela 2 million barrels of condensate – a light liquid produced during gas extraction – in seven months, expanding trade begun under the previous administration in Tehran. Venezuela mixes condensate with its own heavy crude to produce a suitable feed for refining.

Iran in return is offering through National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) a way for Venezuela to dilute and export its heavy crude, Reuters reported. The Dino I is scheduled to sail later this month with Venezuela oil for NIOC’s Naftiran Intertrade Company. Meanwhile the Venezuela-owned Maximo Gorki will discharge 2 million barrels of Iranian condensate at the port, while the Iran-flagged Derya waits in Venezuelan waters with another cargo.

However, there was little if any sign of a positive attitude in the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman’s latest statement about the visit. Saeed Khatibzadeh said: "The United States has violated Iran's rights and has taken things from the Iranian nation's pocket which it should return."

Political analyst Ali Bigdeli told Nameh News website in Tehran on Monday that Mora's visit to Tehran is not likely to solve any problem. Bigdeli stressed that any breakthrough in the current situation of the talks needs a change of strategy and approach in Tehran.

Mora will stay in Tehran for more than one day, and this could mean that extensive talks are under way, although the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman's statement leaves very little hope for a "change of approach.” A change in Iran's strategy is even more unlikely following Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's meeting with Syria's Bashar al-Assad in Tehran on Sunday, as the outcome of the meeting could be a bigger role for Iran in the region.

During the past weeks some Iranian observers suggested that Iran should soften its positions in Vienna as the country badly needs an agreement that would reduce the pressure of sanctions on Iran's ailing economy.

Bigdeli said Mora was not successful in his previous missions to Tehran. This is his second visit since late March. He was not successful in his first visit as the Americans rejected the idea of delisting the IRGC as a terrorist group. But he added that now Biden might need an achievement before Congressional elections in November.

Bigdeli explained that "Talk of IRGC has derailed the nuclear negotiations. Now Iran needs to change its strategy about the region and problems are unlikely to be solved unless it adopts a pacifist approach to its regional and international strategy."

He added: "Iran needs to change its ideological anti-West approach which has led to the current deadlock. This has brought Israel closer to our borders…For once we should begin to change our views about the missile program, regional issues, human rights and so on if we really want to solve our problems."

Bigdeli stressed: "We should prioritize our national interests. Without doing so, Mora's visit and similar initiatives are not going to change anything. Our current approach has led to our isolation and created all of these economic problems."

Meanwhile, another Iranian political commentator and former diplomat Jalal Sadatian has also told Nameh News that "There is not much hope in reaching an agreement in Vienna unless one or both parties make essential changes to their positions."

He said, "Iran should have allowed the previous government [Hassan Rouhani] to forge an agreement as everything was ready [last year]. But that opportunity is lost.,” and now the IRGC issue is preventing a deal, waiting for a political decision to be made in Tehran [by Khamenei]."

Sadatian added that "in the current situation the US is not in a hurry as it knows that we have problems in our country." He went on to say that Iran is now more cautious in its relations with Moscow after the war in Ukraine and is counting to some extent on building better ties with Europe. But if the talks are not conclusive, pressures inside Iran will mount to a level higher than what we see today."