The Iranian negotiating team is ready to engage constructively in future talks to reach a deal on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran’s envoy to the United Nations said.
“Following Doha talks, we’ll coordinate with [the European Union] on next stage of talks,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in a tweet summarizing his speech at the UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.
He stressed that the ball is in the United States’ court and if it acts realistically and shows serious intention to implement its obligations, agreement is not out of reach.
Takht-Ravanchi made the remarks at a meeting to discuss the latest report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the implementation of a 2015 council resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, between Iran and six world powers.
The US abandoned the accord in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran, which reacted by scaling down its commitments.
Talks began in Vienna, Austria, to work out how both sides can resume compliance, but reached a deadlock in March over a few remaining differences between Tehran and Washington.
The EU, as coordinator of JCPOA, met with top officials from both sides and arranged indirect negotiations between the two in Doha, Qatar, to break the impasse so that all parties could eventually gather in Vienna to conclude a deal.
Takht-Ravanchi described the talks, which were held on Tuesday and Wednesday, as “serious and positive,” while EU intermediary Enrique Mora expressed regret that two intense days of proximity talks did not achieve the progress that the EU team as coordinator had hoped for.
“We will keep working with even greater urgency to bring back on track a key deal for non-proliferation and regional stability,” Mora tweeted.
A US State Department spokesperson claimed in a statement that Iran “failed to respond positively to the EU’s initiative and therefore ... no progress was made” in the talks.
“Iran raised issues wholly unrelated… [Tehran] apparently is not ready to make a fundamental decision on whether it wants to revive the deal or bury it,” the spokesperson asserted.
US deputy ambassador to the UN Richard Mills told the council that “we can only conclude a deal, and implement it, if Iran drops its additional demands that are outside the scope of the JCPOA.”
Iran, on the other hand, blamed President Joe Biden administration’s “weakness and its inability to make a final decision” for lack of progress in the talks.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said in report that “what prevented these negotiations from coming to fruition is the US insistence on its proposed draft text in Vienna that excludes any guarantees for Iran’s economic benefit.”
Verifiable Guarantees
UN political chief Rosemary DiCarloas said at the UNSC meeting that the JCPOA was now at a critical juncture, expressing hope that Iran and the US would continue to build on the momentum of the last few days of talks, facilitated by the EU, to resolve the remaining issues.
EU Ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog, however, voiced concern that the efforts “might not make it over the finishing line.”
“My message is: Seize this opportunity to conclude the deal, based on the text that is on the table,” he said.
France, Britain and Germany accused Iran of making “new extraneous and unrealistic demands” urging Tehran to “take this opportunity to conclude the deal, while it is still possible.”
In a statement issued before the council meeting, they also expressed concern about Iran’s nuclear advancements, which are carried out as countermeasures against western continued pressure.
“Iran’s actions are rapidly unsettling the balance of the package we had negotiated over many months to restore the JCPOA and closing the window for an immediate diplomatic solution,” they said, calling on Tehran to stop and reverse its nuclear escalation and seize without further delay the offer on the table.
Takht-Ravanchi stressed in his speech that Iran’s nuclear commitments were connected to the lifting of all sanctions and normalization of trade and economic relations, but the sanctions are still in place.
He underlined that Iran had continued honoring its commitments, but after European participants disregarded promises to compensate the losses Iran suffered, it had no choice but to exercise its rights to partially suspend its commitments.
Tehran maintains that all its measures are reversible once its JCPOA benefits are guaranteed.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council that Iran “should urgently take this deal—there will not be a better one.”
France’s envoy Nicolas de Riviere also censured Iran for not taking up the offer on the table and adding yet more issues which fall outside the JCPOA with “maximalist and unrealistic demands.”
Takht-Ravanchi defied the arguments, saying that “Iran has demanded verifiable and objective guarantees from the US that JCPOA will not be torpedoed again, that the US will not violate its obligations again, and that sanctions will not be re-imposed under other pretexts or designations.”
Russia’s delegate Dmitry Polyansky pointed out that Washington’s illegitimate unilateral sanctions and its policy of maximum pressure on Iran is the main cause of the current problems plaguing the agreement.
“All of Iran’s subsequent steps were a reaction to those destructive measures.”
“Attempts to step up pressure on Iran through unwarranted fueling of tensions around the JCPOA could fully invalidate prospects for reviving the deal,” he cautioned and urged all parties to show flexibility and focus on compromise.
China’s envoy also highlighted that US measures were the root cause of the current Iranian nuclear crisis, urging the US to “correct its mistake and lift all relevant unilateral sanctions and long-term jurisdictional measures against Iran so that it can fully partake of the economic dividends of the JCPOA.”
