EU officials: JCPOA revival might not get to finishing line

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
1 Jul 2022 10:17

The EU believes a nuclear deal with Iran is far-fetched, the US refuses to drop sanctions, and Iran seeks assurances from the US.

Iran's U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi

Senior Western officials expressed reservations about restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Thursday, with the European Union suggesting it "may not get it across the finishing line" and a US official saying the odds had diminished following this week's unsuccessful talks.

The United Nations Security Council gathered to evaluate the situation with Iran one day after indirect US-Iran talks in Doha concluded with little indication of progress toward reviving the accord under which Tehran curtailed its nuclear program in exchange for respite from US, UN, and EU sanctions.

"I am concerned that we might not make it over the finishing line. My message is: Seize this opportunity to conclude the deal, based on the text that is on the table," said Olof Skoog, the European Union Ambassador to the United Nations.

The EU is coordinated talks to resuscitate the accord, which was reneged on by then-US President Donald Trump in 2018. The former President reinstated tough US sanctions on Iran, forcing Tehran to begin breaching its nuclear constraints roughly a year later.

"The prospects for a deal after Doha are worse than they were before Doha and they will be getting worse by the day," adding that "You could describe Doha at best as treading water, at worst as moving backwards. But at this point treading water is for all practical purposes moving backwards," the senior U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Security Council convened to review UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' latest report on the implementation of a 2015 council resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal, technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

See more: The JCPOA in Brief (The Original 2015 deal)

Diplomats from the United States, Britain, and France all blamed Iran for the failure to resurrect the accord after more than a year of talks.

British Ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward said that Iran "should urgently take this deal - there will not be a better one."

While the Deputy US Ambassador to the UN stated that "Iran has yet to demonstrate any real urgency to conclude a deal, end the current nuclear crisis and achieve important sanctions lifting."

In accordance with the US and UK Ambassadors, the French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said that "Not only has Iran not taken up the offer on the table, but it also added yet more issues which fall outside the JCPOA with maximalist and unrealistic demands.”

On the other hand, Iran found the latest talks to be "serious and positive" furthering that the country is now ready to strike a deal.

"Iran has demanded verifiable and objective guarantees from the U.S. that JCPOA will not be torpedoed again, that the U.S. will not violate its obligations again, and that sanctions will not be re-imposed under other pretexts or designations," Iranian Ambassador to the UN Majid Takht Ravanchi told the council.

However, Chinese and Russian diplomats criticized the US. On one end, Beijing's ambassador pressed Washington to lift unilateral US sanctions on Iran, while Russia encouraged all parties to be flexible.