Prospects for reviving the Iran nuclear deal appeared to take a step backward Thursday as the Biden administration said Tehran's latest proposals, submitted through the European Union, were 'not constructive.'
Prospects for reviving the Iran nuclear deal appeared to take a step backward Thursday as the Biden administration said that Tehran’s latest proposals, submitted through the European Union, were “not constructive.”“We can confirm that we have received Iran’s response,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement. “We are studying it and will respond ... but unfortunately it is not constructive.
For weeks, the United States and Iran have gone back and forth with replies and counter-replies to a “final” text offered in July by the European Union, which has coordinated nearly a year and a half of negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement signed between world powers and Iran. E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell deemed “reasonable” an initial Iranian response to the text last month, but said Iran had requested some “adjustments.
Neither Iran nor the United States has made public its submissions, but the exchanges had raised optimism that the negotiations had reached an endgame and momentum for a settlement. Earlier this week, Borrell said that he hoped a deal could be reached “in the coming days.” In a speech to ambassadors Wednesday in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped that agreement would be concluded “in the next few days.
Under the terms of the original deal, U.S. and international sanctions on Iran were lifted in exchange for its submission to strict curbs on its nuclear program and international monitoring. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement — signed by Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, along with the United States and Iran — in 2018, reimposing lifted sanctions and adding many more.
President Biden came to office pledging to restore the original agreement, saying it was the best way to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Iran has said its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.