by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Reuters
Negotiators have worked for 11 months to try to revive the agreement under which Iran limited its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain fissile material for a bomb.
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The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors
meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna,
Austria, March 1, 2021.
(photo credit: REUTERS/LISI NIESNER/FILE PHOTO)
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The IAEA and Iran agreed on Saturday to a roadmap to resolve outstanding issues in the agency’s probe of Tehran’s nuclear program in a development that could pave the road to a broader deal with the world powers.
According to the roadmap, Iran will provide new information to the world’s nuclear inspectors by March 20 followed by a series of exchanges and meetings which may end with closing the probe at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in June.
Yet, in a dizzying development, the same day the IAEA deal was announced saw Russia suddenly threaten to obstruct the ongoing nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic in Vienna.
Since the Mossad seized Iran’s secret nuclear archive in January 2018, the IAEA and the ayatollahs have faced a series of conflicts over questions about three nuclear sites that Iran had kept secret and over illicit nuclear material that inspectors found at one of the sites.
A deal closing those probes by late June would seem to energize the broader talks between Iran and the world powers about returning to the 2015 JCPOA deal in Vienna.
IAEA DIRECTOR-GENERAL Rafael Grossi speaks at a news conference during a
Board of Governors meeting in Vienna in September. (credit: Leonhard
Foeger/Reuters)But on Saturday, suddenly Moscow demanded a written US guarantee that Ukraine-related sanctions would not damage Russian cooperation with Iran.
An Iranian official called this threat "not constructive" and there was speculation about whether it might derail the talks.
At press time the US had not yet responded to the Russian demand.
However, Moscow’s activities go to the heart of the JCPOA, including being the default location to ship out Iran’s uranium stock and being that Russia helps operate a variety of Iranian nuclear facilities.As such, there has been no US statement to date indicating that Ukraine sanctions would impact Russia’s relations with Iran, and the entire situation could be simply to get Washington to publicly acknowledge that fact in the ongoing public relations war with Moscow.
"Russians had put this demand on the table (at the Vienna talks) since two days ago. There is an understanding that by changing its position in Vienna talks Russia wants to secure its interests in other places. This move is not constructive for Vienna nuclear talks," said the Iranian official in Tehran.
Demanding written US guarantees that Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine would not damage its cooperation with Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the limitations had become a stumbling block for the Iran nuclear deal, warning the West that Russian national interests would have to be taken into account.
Lavrov said the sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine had created a "problem" from Moscow's perspective.
When asked whether Russia's demand would harm 11 months of talks between Tehran and world powers, including Russia, Iran Project Director at International Crisis Group, Ali Vaez said: "Not yet. But it’s impossible to segregate the two crises for much longer."
"The US can issue waivers for the work related to the transfer of excess fissile material to Russia. But it’s a sign that the commingling of the two issues has started," Vaez said.
Two diplomats, one of them not directly involved in the talks, said China also has demanded written guarantees that its companies doing business in Iran wouldn't be affected by US sanctions.
Still, all parties involved in Vienna talks said on Friday they were close to reaching an agreement.
"We have agreed to provide the IAEA by (the Iranian month of) Khordad [June 21] with documents related to outstanding questions between Tehran and the agency," Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami told a joint news conference earlier Saturday with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi.
Grossi arrived in Tehran late on Friday to discuss one of the last thorny issues blocking revival of the pact, which in return for a lifting of economic sanctions limited Iran's enrichment of uranium, making it harder for Tehran to develop material for nuclear weapons.
"It is important to have this understanding ... to work together, to work very intensively," Grossi told the televised news conference.
"Without resolving these (outstanding) issues, efforts to revive the JCPOA may not be possible."
A major sticking point in the talks had been that Tehran wanted the question of uranium traces found at several old but undeclared sites in Iran to be closed. Western powers had said that is a separate matter to the deal, which the IAEA is not a party to.
Grossi, who also held talks with Iran's foreign minister before returning to Vienna on Saturday, said, "there are still matters that need to be addressed by Iran."
Yonah Jeremy Bob, Reuters
Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-700390
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