‘A STEP BACKWARD’: After a year and a half of negotiations, which resulted in a “final text” of an agreement for Iran to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, Tehran’s latest demands have effectively sunk prospects for any agreement in the near term.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted as much in comments this week in Mexico City. “Iran’s response to the proposal put forward by the European Union is clearly a step backward and makes prospects for an agreement in the near term, I would say, unlikely,” Blinken said. “Iran seems either unwilling or unable to do what is necessary to reach an agreement, and they continue to try to introduce extraneous issues to the negotiation that make an agreement less likely.”