The Biden administration is balking at the latest response from Iran in the negotiation to restart the nuclear agreement the countries were a part of from 2015 to 2018.
The State Department received Iran’s response through the European Union, which has been coordinating talks to reconstitute the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for the last 16 months, on Thursday.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that officials were reviewing it but the initial thoughts were that it was “not constructive,” whereas Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told Iranian state media that the text “has a constructive approach aimed at finalizing negotiations.”
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A senior Biden administration official told Politico that “based on their answer, we appear to be moving backwards” and that “the bottom line is that it is not at all encouraging,” though the official declined to provide specifics.
On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran was 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.
Various administration and EU officials had expressed a cautiously optimistic tone in recent days and weeks prior to the Iranian response on Thursday, though they reiterated that there were hurdles to clear. Last week, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said 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 greater international and independent oversight. The Biden administration, from the beginning, has staked significant diplomatic resources into reentering the deal President Donald Trump withdrew from four years ago.
Fifty U.S. representatives wrote a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to consult with Congress before reentering the deal, and they expressed their concern about some of the reported concessions they’re considering to get Iran back into the agreement.
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Iran and the United States have been on the opposite sides of various recent events, further complicating the negotiations.
The Justice Department unsealed charges earlier this month accusing Shahram Poursafi of attempting to assassinate former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, likely in retaliation for the killing of Quds Force leader Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. The same week, controversial author Salman Rushdie was stabbed, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed the Iranian government for the attack.
Earlier this week, administration officials confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Russia has acquired Iranian drones for use in Ukraine. While the officials couldn’t specify the number of drones Russia has purchased, they said they expect Moscow to buy “hundreds” of them. Around the same time, the U.S. Navy prevented an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy support ship from overtaking an unmanned surface vessel operated by the U.S. 5th Fleet in the Arabian Gulf.
