Qatar talks end; JCPOA remains unfulfilled

Less than a week after the presence of Josep Borrell, the European foreign policy chief, in Tehran to mediate between the Islamic Republic and the United States with the aim of returning to the negotiating table to revive the JCPOA and continue the Vienna talks, the two sides met in Doha, Qatar, but no specific outcome was achieved from these talks.

Two American and European officials said about the two-day talks to revive the JCPOA in Doha, Qatar, that the Islamic Republic is not interested in a happy ending to the talks, but the spokesman for the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry said: "Bagheri Kani and Enrique Moura will be in contact."

A US State Department spokesperson told the Persian service of Voice of America about the results of the JCPOA revival talks in Doha: "In the Doha talks, as in the past, we announced our readiness to return to and fully adhere to the JCPOA based on the year-and-a-half talks in Vienna, but the Islamic Republic again raised issues that were completely unrelated to the JCPOA."

Stating that apparently the Islamic Republic's officials have not made a serious decision to revive the JCPOA agreement or bury it, he added: "The European Union's efforts in indirect talks are worthy of praise, but the Islamic Republic still failed to respond positively to the European Union's initiative, and as a result, no progress has been made."

This is while Mohammad Marandi, an advisor to the nuclear negotiating team, says: "Negotiations on the remaining controversial issues from Vienna have not failed and will continue."

In an interview with Al-Mayadeen, he said: "It was not expected that the negotiations would end with a positive solution in just two days. We do not take the media statements of American officials seriously."

Marandi added: "The Americans must provide the guarantees that Iran wants to make sure that they do not stab us in the back as they did in the past. The Europeans are more interested in Iran today because they need its oil due to the war in Ukraine."

On the other hand, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper and Ali Khamenei’s representative in this newspaper, wrote in a note stating that the America of Qatar is the America of Vienna: “The United States and its allies are seeking ‘unproductive negotiations’ and want to disrupt our country’s economy by conditioning the price of foreign exchange and gold, causing price volatility, and dozens of other disruptions resulting from the ups and downs of the talks.” Shariatmadari continued, “Our country’s nuclear team has been present in the talks with exemplary authority and intelligence, and has not tied all of the country’s affairs to the talks, unlike the previous government.”

Resalat newspaper also wrote: "Today, there is a discussion about nuclear negotiations while the Americans returned to the negotiating table out of desperation, and the reason for their insistence on reviving the JCPOA is due to three issues: "Returning Iranian oil to the energy market, using Iran's ticket in the congressional and presidential elections, and using a possible agreement in Biden's regional trip."

The author of this newspaper further emphasized: "The Americans must give in to three logical and rational demands of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the upcoming negotiations: "Lifting sanctions, providing credible guarantees, and incorporating a verification process into any potential agreement."

“The Iranian side showed no sense of urgency in the Doha talks and focused on old unresolved issues,” a senior US official, who was not named, told Axios. “The Iranian side has also raised new issues unrelated to the JCPOA,” he added, but did not elaborate on the Islamic Republic’s new demands.

A few weeks after the sudden halt in negotiations to revive the JCPOA in Vienna, American officials said: The Islamic Republic has declared the removal of the Revolutionary Guard Corps from the United States' list of terrorist organizations as the main condition for returning to the JCPOA.

On Wednesday, the news site Noornews, affiliated with the National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, claimed in a report that the Islamic Republic’s two demands in these negotiations were “the lifting of all sanctions imposed during the presidency of Donald Trump” and “guaranteeing that the United States will continue to abide by the JCPOA agreement.” The site did not mention the request to remove the IRGC from the list of terrorist groups. The Noornews article was corrected an hour later and the section on Iran’s demands was removed.

The Tasnim news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, also reported, citing sources familiar with the negotiations, that during this round of talks, which were held indirectly between Iran and the United States, with the European Union acting as a mediator and transmitter of the message, Iran reiterated the need to reach a lasting agreement and that no results had been achieved, a claim that the US State Department rejected.

On the other hand, Enrique Moura, who went to Qatar on behalf of the European Union to negotiate with Iran, wrote in a tweet published on Wednesday night: "In the intensive two-day negotiations in Doha on the JCPOA, unfortunately, the progress that Europe was aiming for was not achieved, but we are trying to revive the JCPOA because it is necessary for regional stability."

Source: Voice of America