Negotiations on restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program can be completed in a day or two, but the US side is not ready to resume them. Russia's Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told a press conference on Wednesday.
"According to our assessment, they (negotiations on the JCPOA - TASS) can be completed in almost one day, in two days. And the Iranians are showing considerable flexibility now, and the issues are not so complicated, in my opinion, against the background of the general array of agreements reached, which have not yet been formalized. But it turned out that the United States is not ready for negotiations, for their resumption," the diplomat said.
According to Ulyanov, there are signals that the US has "decided to at least freeze the negotiations." "In my opinion, this is a completely irresponsible line of behavior - in conditions when there are literally a few steps left to the finish line - to interrupt the process under far-fetched pretexts," he continued.
Risks of escalation
Mr. Ulyanov emphasized that if the Vienna talks do not end on a positive note, "the risk of escalation is greatly increased, which may become uncontrollable, up to the most deplorable scenarios." "The Americans and, for the record, the Israelis sometimes make the point that a military option is not out of the question. If it may deliberately come to this, then it will affect everyone, including the US and not only the US," said the permanent representative. - "There is an opportunity, a real chance to prevent all this through some light diplomatic efforts, just in a few days. If the media reports and statements by official representatives do reflect the mood of the US side, this is very sad and very worrying, but I would like to hope that this is not the last word from the Americans, although all indications are that they do not intend to return to negotiations."
Earlier, Spokesman for the United States Department of State Ned Price told reporters that the US administration believed that the Iranian authorities had "killed the possibility of a quick mutual return" of Washington and Tehran to the JCPOA.
The JCPOA on Iran's nuclear program was signed with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear developments by the permanent UN Security Council Five and Germany. Previous US President Donald Trump decided in 2018 to withdraw from the agreement. Current US leader Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled a willingness to bring Washington back into the nuclear deal with Tehran. Russia, Britain, Germany, China, the US and France have been negotiating with Iran in Vienna since April 2021 to restore the JCPOA to its original form.
Clarifying guarantee issues
Russia is setting the Iranian partners to a more thorough approach to the negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the clarification of the issues related to the fulfillment of the guarantee agreement, Ulyanov said.
According to him, the IAEA secretariat has questions for Iran that are related to the fulfillment of obligations to the agency under the guarantee agreement. "The Iranians are not refusing dialogue, but in the opinion of most members of the agency, and in our opinion as well, they should negotiate more substantially and remove all these issues," he said. - "It can be done. We are setting our Iranian friends to do this more thoroughly."
The permanent representative pointed out that the lack of progress in clarifying these issues is "a strong irritant around Iran on the IAEA's agenda."
"No one needs to keep on the agenda these issues that have been raised at every session of the IAEA Board of Governors for a year now," Ulyanov emphasized. - "It is time to put an end to this. The process is slow, but I would like to hope that it will speed up and, early next year, these pending issues will be closed."
Questions but no claims
The IAEA secretariat, the diplomat continued, has questions for Tehran related to the discovery of particles of undeclared nuclear material - anthropogenic uranium - in several locations on Iranian territory.
"Apparently, the Iranians did some undeclared nuclear activity there 20 years ago: nothing terrible, judging by the scale of the traces that remain," Ulyanov continued. - "The Iranians themselves stopped these activities 20 years ago. From the non-proliferation point of view, there are no threats or risks here, no matter how much the opponents of the nuclear deal try to make a big deal out of this."
"But there is another aspect, the agreement on guarantees and obligations of Iran to the agency, and there are problems with it," stated the permanent representative. - "But these are not claims, but questions from the side of the IAEA secretariat, which require answers."
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS