Iran struck a maximalist tone yesterday after just one day of restarted talks in Vienna over its tattered nuclear deal, suggesting everything discussed in previous rounds of diplomacy could be renegotiated.
Iranian state media reported the comments by Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Bagheri, the nation’s top nuclear negotiator, and Mohammed Eslami, the country’s civilian nuclear head chief.
However, it remained unclear whether this represented an opening gambit by Iran’s new hard line president or signaled serious trouble for those hoping to restore the 2015 deal that saw Tehran strictly limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
The US left the deal under then-president Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran in 2018. Since the deal’s collapse, Iran now enriches small amounts of uranium up to 60 percent purity — a short step from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Iran also spins advanced centrifuges barred by the accord, and its uranium stockpile now far exceeds the accord’s limits.
US President Joe Biden has said Washington is willing to re-enter the deal, although the negotiations continue with US officials not in the room as in previous rounds of talks since Washington’s withdrawal.
Speaking to Iranian state television, Bagheri referred to the previous rounds of talks only as a “draft.”
“Drafts are subject to negotiation. Therefore nothing is agreed on unless everything has been agreed on,” he said. “On that basis, all discussions that took place in the six rounds are summarized and are subject to negotiations. This was admitted by all parties in today’s meeting as well.”
That directly contradicted comments on Monday by the EU diplomat leading the talks.
“The Iranian delegation represents a new administration in Tehran with new understandable political sensibilities, but they have accepted that the work done over the six first rounds is a good basis to build our work ahead, so no point in going back,” Enrique Mora said then.
Another state TV segment saw Bagheri in Vienna also saying Iran demanded a “guarantee by American not to impose new sanctions” or not reimpose previously lifted sanctions.
Eslami, speaking to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, reiterated that demand.
“The talks [in Vienna] are about return of the US to the deal and they have to lift all sanctions and this should be in practice and verifiable,” he said, without elaborating.
Israel, Iran’s regional, nuclear-armed rival, kept up its own pressure amid the negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a video address delivered to nations negotiating in Vienna, said that he saw Iran trying to “end sanctions in exchange for almost nothing.”
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