Earlier this week, a message coming out of Iran expressed a willingness to engage directly with the United States over its nuclear deal if sanctions on Iran are lifted. During a live broadcast, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said, “If the parties are ready to lift the oppressive sanctions, it is quite possible any agreement can be reached.”
Yahoo News reports that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, indirectly gave the green light to the Iranian negotiation team to talk with the U.S. and said negotiating and interacting with the enemy does not mean surrender.
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. However, lifting sanctions on Iran could lead to military action by Israel, officials in Jerusalem warned world powers.
Israel claims that if the US lifts sanctions – along with international sanctions soon to be lifted under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal – Iran could reach the nuclear threshold within six months. At that point, Israel could find it necessary to take unilateral action.
In a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called for the world to ramp up the threat to Iran in order to deter it from developing a nuclear weapon. Lapid emphasized that Israel views the talks as an attempt by Tehran to stall as it advances its nuclear program, and the world must have a plan B. “Sanctions must not be lifted from Iran,” Lapid said. “Sanctions must be tightened. A real military threat must be put before Iran because that is the only way to stop its race to become a nuclear power.” The meeting with Macron came a day after Lapid relayed a similar message in a meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Israel opposes the JCPOA because it insufficiently limited Iran’s uranium enrichment, and, in fact, legitimizes further enrichment after the agreement expires, which paves the way for an eventual nuclear bomb. In addition, the JCPOA did not address Iran’s other malign actions in the region. But worse than the JCPOA, Israeli officials say, would be an interim deal that would barely restrict Iran’s nuclear program. Jerusalem has grown increasingly concerned that the U.S. is considering such an agreement, which some diplomats have called “less for less,” to have the U.S. lift some sanctions in exchange for Iran freezing – not rolling back – its nuclear program, which has advanced far beyond the JCPOA’s restrictions. Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz said in an interview with KAN that this should be called “more for less,” as Iran would be getting a cash influx while conceding almost nothing.
Israel’s diplomatic efforts are overwhelmingly focused on the US, in order to convince Washington not to lift sanctions. France, Germany and the UK have been sympathetic to Israel’s messages, a senior Israeli diplomatic source said, and Russia has been attentive. While there has been communication between China and Israel about the Iranian nuclear threat, Beijing has been less receptive. Diplomats from the E3 – France, Britain and Germany – in the Vienna talks told Reuters that there will be a problem if Iran does not show that it is taking the negotiations seriously. Reaching an agreement is urgent, the diplomats said, but they did not want to impose an artificial deadline.
Iranian officials continued to maintain that the talks are about lifting U.S. sanctions, as opposed to their country’s nuclear program, even though the Joint Comprehensive Plan of action, as the 2015 deal was called, limited uranium enrichment in addition to gradually lifting sanctions. Russia’s Ambassador to International Institutions in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said that the U.S. reaffirmed that it was willing to lift all post-JCPOA sanctions if Iran returns to full compliance with the agreement. In addition, Iran demands a “guarantee by America not to impose new sanctions...The talks are about the return of the U.S. to the deal, and they have to lift all sanctions and this should be in practice and verifiable,” Bagheri said. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said they will “not accept anything less than sanctions removal and we will not commit to anything more than what is in the JCPOA.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated that the talks with Iran are at a “decisive moment,” and warned that Washington and its allies may need to change tactics if a deal regarding its nuclear program isn’t reached soon.