US hesitant on Iran nuclear talks, while Russia, Iran optimistic

Thus, there is the possibility of some interaction between Russia's malign intentions and actions and those of Iran, allowing one party to exploit a crisis created by the other.
Representatives attend a meeting of the joint commission on negotiations aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna, Dec. 9, 2021. (Photo: AFP)
Representatives attend a meeting of the joint commission on negotiations aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna, Dec. 9, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan24) – As the eighth round of talks in Vienna began this week on restoring the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price expressed US caution about the progress of the discussions. However, he articulated no deadline, nor alternative US policy, if the talks fail to produce results in the near future.

This is so, even though Iran has limited access to key sites by nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and, according to the Biden administration's own statements, has increased its violations of the limits that the agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), placed on its nuclear activity.

By contrast, both Iran and Russia expressed satisfaction with the negotiations, while Tehran's state-run media reported that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi would visit Russia in early 2022 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, "in the framework of strategic interaction between Iran and Russia."

Tensions between the US and Europe, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other, are at a peak unprecedented since the early 1980s—when the Soviet Union still existed—over concerns that Russia is about to invade Ukraine.

Thus, there is the possibility of some interaction between Russia's malign intentions and actions and those of Iran, allowing one party to exploit a crisis created by the other.

On Tuesday, the second day of the new, eighth round of JCPOA negotiations in Vienna, the Russian envoy to those talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted that there had been "indisputable progress." 

Similarly, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated on Tuesday that the talks were "on a good track."

"With the goodwill and seriousness from the other parties, we can consider (reaching) a quick agreement in the near future," Amir-Abdollahian said.

Later on Tuesday, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price was asked about Ulyanov's claim. "It's really too soon to tell," Price replied, even as he noted "Iran's accelerating nuclear steps." 

"As we've said before, this can't continue or it will soon be too late to return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA," he continued, affirming it is "something we have sincerely and steadfastly sought to do for a number of months now."

Six rounds of nuclear talks were held between April and June with the previous Iranian government. The negotiations seemed to be progressing, but they were paused after the hard-line candidate, Ebrahim Raisi, won Iran's elections, becoming its new president.

In November, the nuclear talks resumed with a seventh round, but they made little progress. 

Read More: US flailing on Iran, as nuclear talks stall again

So at Tuesday's press briefing, another journalist, dissatisfied with Price's answer, pressed him on the claim that it was "too early to tell," if progress was being made in Vienna. 

"What are you waiting for?," she asked. "Isn't a month enough to tell whether someone's sincere or not," particularly "as the clock is ticking?"

Price's response included the suggestion that there had been "some modest progress." 

"At the conclusion of the seventh round, we left with a common understanding of what the text would be that would serve as the basis for negotiations on nuclear issues," he said. "We are now assessing, in the course of these talks, whether the Iranians came back with an agenda of new issues or preliminary solutions to the ones already presented."

But that was not the impression Washington gave at the time. Following the seventh round, the US negotiator, Robert Malley, speaking about Iran's violations of the nuclear accord, along with the lack of diplomatic progress, said, "If they continue at their current pace, we have some weeks left, but not much more than that, at which point, I think, the conclusion will be that there's no deal to be revived."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly warned that time was "getting very, very short" to revive the 2015 accord.

Indeed, on Tuesday, the European negotiators to the Vienna talks—Britain, France, and Germany—issued an unusually strong statement protesting the lack of progress while affirming that the negotiations were "urgent."

"We are clear that we are nearing the point where Iran's escalation of its nuclear program will have completely hollowed out the JCPOA," they warned.