The Biden administration is continuing its efforts to reenter the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, but there are “still gaps” between the negotiating parties.
The State Department found Iran’s latest formal response to the negotiations “not constructive,” State Department spokesperson Vedanta Patel said last week, while National Security Council coordinator John Kirby reiterated on Tuesday that “we’re just not there yet.”
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“Suffice to say there’s still gaps, and we’re just not there yet,” Kirby explained in a briefing. “That doesn’t mean that we’re less committed to a deal. It doesn’t mean that we don’t still want to see if we can get there; we do. But there’s still quite a bit of work for our diplomats to do.”
“We’re not going to talk about hypotheticals here with respect to Iran. The president has been clear: You will not allow Iran to achieve a nuclear weapons capability,” he continued. “[Biden] believes strongly that the best way to do that is through diplomacy.”
Last week, before the United States received Iran’s response, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that they were looking for “stronger text on guarantees” without providing additional details during a joint press conference in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to Voice of America.
Administration and European Union officials had expressed a cautiously optimistic tone in recent weeks before the Iranian response, though they were clear in pointing out the significant obstacles still in the way. The “not constructive” proposal from Iran appears to be the latest obstacle even after indications of progress.
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Kirby said last month that Iran had made some concessions “that allowed us to get to where we are in the process … so that’s a positive step forward,” noting that the sides are “closer now than we were even just a couple of weeks ago.”
It’s unclear how long both sides will continue to pursue reentry into the nuclear agreement that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for caps on its nuclear program and the ability for international and independent oversight. Biden has staked significant foreign policy resources into reentering the deal then-President Donald Trump withdrew from four years ago.
