Washington Sees Chance of Resolving Outstanding Issues on JCPOA Revival

The United States still sees an opportunity to overcome the remaining differences with Iran over the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, said a senior American diplomat. 
“We continue to believe … that a mutual return to compliance would be in our nonproliferation interests, in our broader national security interests,” US Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a regular press briefing on Monday. 
He added that a mutual return would also be to the benefit of not only Washington’s European allies, who are also parties to the JCPOA, but to the broader international community.
The timeframe for this chance, however, would be until the JCPOA is no longer in US interest due to the level of Iran’s nuclear advancements, according to Price.   
“As soon as Iran’s advancements in its nuclear program go beyond the nonproliferation benefits that we would otherwise accrue from a mutual return to compliance [with JCPOA], that is when the deal would no longer be in our interest, and we would pursue other means,” he said.
Iran has been exceeding the nuclear limits of the deal in response to the US reimposition of sweeping sanctions following its unilateral exit in 2018. 
Negotiations began in April last year in the Austrian capital Vienna to work out how both sides can resume compliance
The talks have been suspended for a month due to an impasse over few outstanding issues, with both sides blaming each other for failing to make the required political decisions. 
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday that the US is responsible for the pause in the negotiations. 
He criticized Washington for taking the deal hostage for the sake of its domestic issues. 
During a visit by the European Union coordinator of the talks, Enrique Mora, to Tehran in late March, Iran even offered a new course of action, according to Khatibzadeh, and is now waiting for US answers. 
“The US must give logical responses to Iran’s reasonable demands, which are approved by the other five members of JCPOA, before Iran is ready to return to Vienna,” he said. 

Constructive Proposals 

Iranian officials say Tehran has put forward the most number of proposals over the course of the talks, censuring western parties for failing to come up with practical pathways.
The US State Department says, on other hand, that the onus is on Tehran to make political decisions, blaming Iran for introducing unrelated demands.  
“Anyone involved in the talks knows precisely who has made constructive proposals, who has introduced demands that are unrelated to the JCPOA, and how we reached this current moment,” Price asserted, adding that Washington’s consistent position is not to negotiate these issues in public. 
It is largely believed that the terror designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps is the main stumbling block to a deal. 
Iran insists that the elite military group must be removed from the list, describing it one of the Islamic Republic’s red lines, while the US refuses to do so. 
US special envoy for Iran has recently said the IRGC “will remain sanctioned under US law and our policies, and our perceptions [of it] will not change.”
Khatibzadeh stressed that Iran would not cross its red lines and would not compromise on its demands. 
“Our red lines are the interests of the people and benefiting from what has been negotiated once before,” he said.