U.S. and Iranian officials will join the 2015 nuclear deal members to “clearly identify” a plan for sanctions relief, following a virtual meeting of the participants on Friday.
“Participants agreed to resume this session of the Joint Commission in Vienna next week, in order to clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures, including through convening meetings of the relevant expert groups,” the European Union said, using the acronym for the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The meeting is expected to take place next Tuesday in Vienna with the participation of U.S. officials. Iranian and U.S. officials both framed the process as a victory for their preferring approach to rehabilitating the pact, as Biden’s team has hesitated to lift the sanctions that President Donald Trump renewed when he exited the pact, while Iranian officials have refused even to meet with the United States unless Biden provided that economic relief.
“Aim: Rapidly finalize sanction-lifting & nuclear measures for choreographed removal of all sanctions, followed by Iran ceasing remedial measures,” Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.
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Iran’s agreement to participate in a conversation about the “choreographed” process marks a shift from Tehran’s reported demand that Biden “unfreeze all of Iran’s export revenue frozen abroad — estimated to be well over $30 billion,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
“At this point, it sounds that they are less interested in initial gestures than in defining what a comprehensive return to compliance would look like,” a U.S. official said. “We have no problem with that as it is consistent with our own initial view.”
Still, Iran hawks see the development as a step toward Iran using the nuclear negotiations process as a shield for terrorism, given that Biden reportedly has been willing to unfreeze Iranian assets that were frozen due to terrorism-related sanctions.
“Iran’s central bank & national oil company are subject to US *terrorism* sanctions, not nuclear sanctions,” former White House National Security Council official Richard Goldberg tweeted Friday.
Biden faces bipartisan pressure from Capitol Hill to proceed in a manner that allows the U.S. to constrain not only the nuclear program, but also Iran’s illicit missile development, support for terrorism, and cultivation of militia proxies in countries around the region.
“Looking ahead, we strongly believe that you should use the full force of our diplomatic and economic tools in concert with our allies on the United Nations Security Council and in the region to reach an agreement that prevents Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons and meaningfully constrains its destabilizing activity throughout the Middle East and its ballistic missile program,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, wrote in a letter signed by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and 41 other senators last month.
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Iranian officials adopted a maximalist posture in state media. “Iran will accept nothing from the JCPOA Joint Commission but the removal of all the sanctions by the United States,” a state media report stated, citing “an informed source” on the regime’s plan.
