Have Russia, the US, or Iranian hardliners taken the JCPOA "hostage"?
A group of US Republicans have called for a halt to the JCPOA negotiations. Russia has made the agreement conditional on the issue of sanctions against it. The Europeans say that an agreement can be reached without Russia, but a faction in Iran sees the US as an obstacle.
A group of Republican US senators on Wednesday (March 10) called on Joe Biden to abandon negotiations with Iran over the nuclear deal, stressing that carrying out the agreement would mean giving a "huge concession" to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the midst of a military invasion of Ukraine.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas told the media at a news conference that the deal, if announced at this time, would be a “huge victory for Vladimir Putin.” He said Putin would earn billions of dollars from oil and gas deals, from nuclear agreements and from arms deals.
Senator Jim Risch of Idaho described Iran and Russia as “two of the worst enemies” of the United States on the planet and called for the country to withdraw from the agreement that “Russia and Iran are negotiating.”
Republicans have opposed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) since it was implemented in 2015 under President Barack Obama. Now, in light of the war in Ukraine, both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concerns about returning to the JCPOA. Senator Bob Menendez, D-Calif., told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday that he also worries that Russia would benefit financially from a new deal.
But Victoria Nuland, the US assistant secretary of state for political affairs, stressed before the committee that we cannot wait any longer, saying: "The last thing we need, next to Putin's bloody war, is a nuclear-armed Iran." She added that failing to reach an agreement with Iran could mean that the country "will acquire nuclear weapons within weeks or months."
European officials rejected Moscow's request out of hand.
In the final days when it was thought that the nuclear talks in Vienna could reach a conclusion and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency had announced that they had reached an agreement on a joint statement on resolving the remaining issues, Russia entered with a new condition.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, March 4, demanded a “written guarantee” from the United States that sanctions against Russia over Ukraine will not in any way negatively affect Moscow’s relations with Tehran within the framework of the agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). A written guarantee that the US sanctions will not in any way “harm” Russia’s “right” to “free and full trade, economic and investment cooperation, and military-technical cooperation” with Iran.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Russia’s chief negotiator Mikhail Ulyanov has also presented an updated version of Russia’s broader demands to the European Union. But a senior Western official said the request was rejected “on the spot” by the Europeans, who said the demands “have nothing to do with the JCPOA.” A response similar to that of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called his Russian counterpart’s demands “irrelevant.” He made it clear that sanctions against Russia and the JCPOA were “separate” issues and “there is no connection between them.”
An agreement can be reached without Russia.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Western officials as saying that an agreement could be reached without Russia, although it would be more difficult and time-consuming. “Finding creative solutions is possible, but it would require opening the JCPOA box, which no one wants to do and would take time,” they said.
Iran, however, has not taken a clear position. In initial reactions, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said: “While insisting on maintaining and observing red lines, we will not allow any foreign factor to affect national interests in the Vienna talks.” Saeed Khatibzadeh, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, called Russia’s role in the Vienna talks “constructive” and stressed that “Iran will make decisions based on the behavior of the United States, not on opaque messages.”
Launching a satellite with two messages
Iran simultaneously (Tuesday, March 6) launched its second satellite, Noor-2, into orbit, saying it was a “surveillance and reconnaissance” satellite. The move drew a response from the United States, which both sees Iran’s space program as a threat.
Today, the Noor News website, affiliated with the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, called this satellite Iran's "second military satellite" and wrote that this action has two messages: "Iran is not willing to negotiate in the field of its defense and space capabilities and regional policies. Second, it emphasizes the fact that any possible negotiations and agreements cannot be a limiting factor in pursuing Iran's defense, missile, and space programs."
Noor News considered this to be "an important message to some political factions within the country," that "they should know that past approaches had put the country on the wrong path, essentially due to a false analysis of the equations of the international system."
The news agency also says that the Vienna talks are stalled "due to America's procrastination in making a political decision on the remaining issues that are within Iran's red lines" and "Western officials and media continue to falsely portray Iran as an obstacle to reaching an agreement, and Russia's request has also become a new factor for America to make excuses."
The fate of the JCPOA is now entangled in Iran’s “red lines,” including getting guarantees from the US that it will not violate the JCPOA again and lifting all sanctions, Moscow’s conditions, and maneuvers by Iran’s hardline factions. A situation that Noor News says some see as “Moscow’s bluff and an obstacle to an agreement in Vienna,” “and some have interpreted it as proof of Russia’s seriousness in the Vienna talks and a guarantee that Iran will benefit from a possible agreement.”
Source: DW
