John Kirby on Status of JCPOA Revival: We Haven’t Reached Anywhere Yet
As the situation regarding the revival of the nuclear agreement with Iran remains unclear, the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said on Tuesday, September 6, that gaps still remain and much work is left before reaching an agreement.
John Kirby, speaking at a briefing session, explained the status of negotiations with Iran: “It is enough to say that there are still gaps and we haven’t reached anywhere yet.”
He added: “This does not mean that our commitment to the agreement has diminished or that we no longer want the work to be completed. We want to reach a result, but there is still much work for our diplomats.”
Kirby’s recent emphasis on the remaining issues in the path of reviving the JCPOA comes at a time when he said on Sunday last that due to Tehran’s overlooking some of its demands, Iran and the United States are now closer to an agreement than “a few weeks ago.”
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly called for closing the file of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s investigations into Iran’s undeclared nuclear materials and sites simultaneously with the revival of the JCPOA.
This comes as Washington has warned that Tehran should not link the IAEA’s investigations into its undeclared nuclear materials and locations to a possible agreement on reviving the JCPOA.
The spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic announced on Monday that “closing the file of past military dimensions in the negotiation process” is part of the “guarantees” that the Islamic Republic is pursuing to “strengthen” this possible agreement.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, reiterated on Tuesday through the voice of the U.S. President that the United States “will not allow Iran to acquire the capability for nuclear weapons.” He added that Joe Biden “strongly believes that the best way to do this is through diplomacy.”
Kirby also said in response to one of the journalists’ questions that “the JCPOA is not about dealing with Iran’s other malicious activities. The aim is to address the problem of [Iran’s] acquiring the capability for nuclear weapons.”
Patel: “Iran’s Response Did Not Put Us in a Position to Close the Agreement”
On Tuesday, at a weekly press briefing of the State Department, Vedant Patel, deputy spokesman of the U.S. State Department, was asked about the future of the JCPOA, and a journalist asked him: “During the last weekend, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that the entire process for reviving the JCPOA is in danger. Then on Thursday you called Iran’s latest response constructive. How do you describe the current status of the process?”
Patel responded that “Iran’s response did not put us in a position to close the agreement. We have repeatedly said that gaps remain, and it is clear from Iran’s response that these gaps still exist.”
Beyond various issues related to the future of sanctions, the Islamic Republic during the JCPOA revival negotiations has been seeking to close the file of past military dimensions. Ibrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, also described one of Tehran’s conditions for reviving the JCPOA on Sunday as “closing political claims about past military dimensions.”
This comes as Rafael Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, has repeatedly warned in recent months that Iran is not cooperating on the origin of uranium discovered at its undeclared sites.
In recent months, a resolution on this matter was also passed at the IAEA Board of Governors.
Source: Radio Farda
