WASHINGTON (AP) – Biden administration’s early efforts to revive 2015 nuclear deal with Iran I get a cold answer from Tehran. Although few expected a breakthrough in the first month of the new administration, Iran’s hard line suggests a difficult path to follow.
After making several significant openings against Iran in its first weeks in office, the administration’s access was almost blocked by the Iranians. They have already rejected Biden’s opening gamble: a US return to the agreement from which President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 if Iran resumes full compliance with its obligations under the agreement.
Iran is turning into a major test of the Biden administration’s general approach to foreign policy, which the president has said will align with the type of multilateral diplomacy that Trump has avoided. Although there are other important issues – Russia, China and North Korea among them – Iran has a special significance for Biden’s best national security assistants. Among them is Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Iran’s Special Envoy Rob Malley, all of whom were closely involved in drafting the 2015 agreement under President Barack Obama and could have personal stakes in rescuing him.
Biden has taken over the mandate to reverse Trump’s withdrawal from the deal, which has given him billions of dollars in relief from sanctions in exchange for restrictions on his nuclear program. Just last week, Biden presented at least three ways: agreeing to return to multinational talks with Iran on relaunching the agreement, overturning Trump’s decision that all UN sanctions on Iran must be reinstated, and easing travel restrictions on Iranian diplomats stationed in the United States. .
However, Iran has firmly maintained its demands that it will not respond to anything less than a complete lifting of sanctions reinstated by Trump. Over the weekend, Iran faced a threat to suspend adherence to a UN agreement that allows intrusive inspections of its declared nuclear sites. Although it has stopped ordering the removal of international inspectors, Iran has reduced cooperation with them and promised to review the move in three months if sanctions are not lifted.
The tough stance of the Iranians has left the administration at the height of a difficult election: go ahead with better sanctions before Iran regains full compliance and risks losing the leverage it has or doubling its demands for full compliance first, and risks Tehran move away. out of business completely.
It is a delicate balance that the administration hates to admit to facing, given Iran’s politically sensitive nature in Washington – Republicans strongly oppose the nuclear deal – and in Europe and the Middle East itself, especially in Israel. and the Arab states in the Gulf are most directly threatened.
On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed that the United States is ready to return to the nuclear deal, provided that Tehran shows “strict compliance” with it. Speaking at the UN Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Blinken said the United States is committed to ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon and pledged to work with allies and partners to “extend and strengthen” the agreement between Iran and Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, China and the USA
“Diplomacy is the best way to achieve this.” he said.
However, just 24 hours earlier, on Sunday, Iran rejected requests to suspend co-operation with the UN nuclear watchdog. While Iran has not expelled the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is tasked with monitoring Iran’s compliance with the agreement, it has ended the agency’s access to videos from cameras installed on several sites.
The United States did not receive an immediate response to this development, but on Monday, the White House and the State Department downplayed the importance of the move.
“Our view is that diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “This does not mean that they have clearly not taken the necessary steps to comply and that we have not taken any action or made any indication that we will not meet the requirements.”
At the State Department, spokesman Ned Price addressed the IAEA mission more directly, praising the agency for its “professionalism” in keeping inspectors and their equipment in the country, despite Iran’s early threat to expel them on Tuesday. He said the United States supported the success of IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in reaching a temporary agreement with Iran, but lamented that Tehran remained out of compliance.
Price said the administration is worried that Iran seems to be going in the wrong direction, but will not comment on the administration’s view that its actions so far have worked. Nor was he prepared to say what the administration could do to push Iran back under the agreement, given its continuing threat of abandoning all restrictions imposed by it.
“The United States is willing to meet with the Iranians to resolve these difficult complex questions,” Price said, referring to expressions government officials used to refer to their original purpose of “compliance for compliance.” then “compliance for compliance-plus.”
“Compliance-plus”, according to administration officials, would include limits on Iran’s non-nuclear activities, including the development of missiles and support for rebel groups in the Middle East and militias. One of the main reasons Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal was that he did not address these issues, and his administration has been trying for more than a year to extend the deal to include them.