US Must Abandon Excessive Demands in Nuclear Talks

The United States must quit its excessive demands and hesitancy and follow a path of realism and solutions to remove obstacles in the way of reviving of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran’s top diplomat said. 
“The incumbent US administration must have the courage to correct the White House’s wrong past policies,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a phone conversation with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Saturday, IRNA reported.
He stressed that there is no doubt in Iran’s determination to reach a “good, strong and lasting agreement”, adding that the three European countries, Russia and China (other parties to the deal) are also ready for the finalization of an agreement.  
The JCPOA has been unravelling since the US pulled out and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran, which responded by scaling down its commitments. 
Negotiations have been underway in the Austrian capital Vienna since last April to work out how both sides can resume compliance, but the talks have been paused for more than a month over a few remaining issues.
Amir-Abdollahian thanked Borrell and the EU coordinator of the Vienna negotiations, Enrique Mora, for their efforts, saying that “diplomacy is working well and properly now.” 
Borrell said the prolongation of the talks is not constructive and suggested that the discussions between the EU representative and Iran’s top negotiator resume in person. 
“We believe that Iran is after an agreement and there have been a variety of initiatives which continue to exist,” he said. 
The Vienna talks seem to be in an impasse with both Iran and the US putting the onus on each other for making the required political decisions. 
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said this month that Iran has proposed its last initiatives and will only return to Vienna to finalize an agreement, not to hold new negotiations.
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said recently that technical discussions in Vienna have been completed and only political issues remain. 

Definite Principle 

A sticking point is reportedly Iran’s demand for the removal of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps from the list of terrorist organizations which the US refuses to entertain. 
Tehran says the designation was part of the US so-called maximum pressure campaign imposed after its exit from the JCPOA, whose components must be revoked completely. 
Washington insists that the issue is non-nuclear and unrelated to JCPOA talks. 
US State Department Ned Price said this week that “if Iran wants sanctions lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they will need to address concerns of ours beyond the JCPOA.” 
“If they do not want to use these talks to resolve other bilateral issues beyond the JCPOA, then we are confident that we can very quickly reach an understanding on the JCPOA and begin re-implementing the deal,” he said. 
He said later on Thursday that a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA remains a very uncertain proposition, so the US is equally for scenarios with and without a deal 
“Ultimately, we’ll make a judgment call. We will only enter into an agreement that the president determines is in the best interests of the security of the United States,” he said. 
Price refused to say what Washington might want in return, but it has been suggested that the US demands that Iran drop the case of General Qasem Soleimani, the top IRGC commander who was assassinated on direct order of former US president Donald Trump in 2020 while on an anti-terrorist mission in Iraq. 
Khatibzadeh had said earlier that it is a definite principle of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy that the people responsible for the assassination must be brought to justice.