US and Germany to build pressure on Iran to return Nuclear Talks

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On Wednesday, the US and Germany stepped up pressure on Iran to return soon to talks on its nuclear program. The foreign minister of Germany said that a delay of 2 or 3 months floated by Tehran is too long. The remaining parties to the 2015 accord with world powers meant to contain Iran’s nuclear program held several rounds of talks in Vienna earlier this year. They discussed how to bring the US back into the deal and how Iran can return to compliance with its terms. But the last round ended in June and no date has been set for their resumption. Last week, new Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said, “The other party understands that it takes two to three months for the new administration to establish and do planning for any sort of decision”.

The foreign minister of Germany Heiko Maas met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He said he told Amirabdollahian last week that 2 or 3 months is a time frame that is much too long for us and called for a quicker return. The US unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump. Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia have tried to preserve the accord. President Joe Biden has said he is open to rejoining the pact. Blinken said: “I’m not going to put a date on it, but we are getting closer to the point at which a strict return to the compliance with the nuclear deal, does not reproduce the benefits that that agreement achieved”.

Blinken added, “We’ve been very clear that the ability to rejoin the deal, return to mutual compliance, is not indefinite”. Iran embarked on a strategy of deliberately violating the deal after the US withdrawal. That was supposedly an attempt to pressure Europe to give Iran incentives to offset the crippling American sanctions re-imposed after the US pullout. On Tuesday, the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran has continued to increase its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in contravention of the accord. The International Atomic Energy Agency also informed member states in its quarterly report that its verification and monitoring activities have been seriously undermined since February by Iran’s refusal to let inspectors access IAEA monitoring equipment. On Wednesday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that a non-constructive attitude by the UN’s nuclear watchdog could damage the nuclear talks.