Nuclear deal talks: the US is in a hurry, and Iran is dragging its feet
EU Coordinator for Negotiations in Vienna Enrique Mora visited Tehran, where he held meetings with the chief Iranian negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.
Earlier, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, stated that the aim of Mora is to resume negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program (officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA), which have "reached an impasse”.
The fact is that almost two months ago, at the last round of the Vienna talks, Iran demanded, among other things, that the United States exclude the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the list of terrorists. The Americans refused.
Now, the British Financial Times notes, Borrell has proposed the so-called "middle ground" in relation to the IRGC. It provides for lifting the ban from part of the IRGC, but preserving it for other structures of the Corps, which, according to him, "has several types of weapons and an extensive business empire”.
The Qatari publication Al-Araby Al-Jadeed points out that Borrell's scenario is an American-European initiative aimed at "pushing negotiations to resolve the remaining issues”.
For US President Joe Biden, the political cost of such a symbolic concession is growing, as congressional elections are coming. He is under pressure from American voters who are disappointed that sanctions against Russia are raising prices for gasoline and groceries. In turn, the bipartisan majority warned the White House that it opposes the lifting of sanctions against the IRGC.
It is difficult to say how successful the mission of Mora will be. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh downgraded the status of his visit, saying that the main task of Mora is only "the transmission of messages between Iran and other negotiating partners”, which narrows the parties' space for wide manoeuvre.
But the very fact that Tehran has agreed to accept Mora contains hints of Iran's agreement to move the negotiations forward. According to the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani, Tehran is advancing negotiations on the lifting of "cruel sanctions in a broad sense”, although there are no hints of any breakthrough yet.
As Khatibzadeh says, "if America returns what it took from us and accepts the violated rights of the Iranian people, we will be able to sign an agreement the day after Mora returns to Vienna."
Behind the scenes of the Tehran talks, tough bargaining is going on. An anonymous French diplomatic source, commenting on the situation, expressed pessimism about the prospects for progress in the negotiations. According to him, the United States is in a hurry, and Iran is delaying time.
Earlier, Washington listed a set of sanctions that the American side is ready to cancel in order to return to the JCPOA, as well as those restrictions that will be maintained. At the same time, he makes it clear that the option in which the United States will do everything at first, and Iran will do nothing, is unacceptable.
But it seems that Tehran does not pin high hopes on Biden and is deliberately slowing down negotiations somewhere because of the domestic political situation in the United States. In general, the Americans are now ready for compromises. However, Iranian politicians cannot afford serious concessions in order not to lose credibility with the population.
P.S. And again intrigue. A few hours ago, Mora reported that the German police detained him at Frankfurt airport on his way back to Brussels from Tehran: "Not a single explanation. And this happens to an EU official from an official mission with a Spanish diplomatic passport. They took my passport and phones." What does all this mean?
Elena Panina, Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute