Glimmer of hope remains on restoring JCPOA revival talks: IAEA chief

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 Dec 2022 22:45

The UN Nuclear Watchdog's chief underlines that he sees there is still hope for the revival fo the JCPOA talks between Iran and the United States.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi

There is still hope for the resurrection of talks on the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Saturday.

A former adviser to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Hossein Taeb, said Thursday that the United States was now asking Tehran to return to the talks on the revival of the JCPOA after its attempts failed to topple the Iranian government through widespread riots in the country.

"What one can say is that the JCPOA, or what remains of it, has become, in practical terms, irrelevant. It will have to be revived, and I think there is still maybe a glimmer of hope that this could be done, although that is in the hands of those negotiating," Grossi told Al Jazeera during an interview.

Over the past year and a half, efforts have been mobilized to revive the JCPOA deal after then-President Donald Trump, with encouragement from then-Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had America withdraw from it in 2018 - stating that the agreement was "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made," claiming that "it didn't bring calm, it didn't bring peace, and it never will."

The original JCPOA was signed in 2015 by China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union.

The latest round of talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal took place in Doha on June 29-30, with the talks being suspended after the US and Iranian representatives went back home.

However, just weeks after the deal seemed to have died, the EU put forward on August 8 what it called a final text to restore the agreement, in which Iran would see sanctions relief and be able to sell its oil again in return for severe limits on its nuclear program.

In an interview with Foreign Policy in late November, US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley said that Iran is "only a few weeks" away from enriching the fissile material needed to develop a nuclear weapon.

The US envoy seems to insist that the Islamic Republic is keen on acquiring the weapon despite that Iran has several times expressed in the past that it is in no way part of its military agenda.

Malley further stated that such a situation has ensued due to the reckless decision of former US President Donald Trump to pull out of the JCPOA agreement.

A month earlier, in an op-ed published by Axios Israeli correspondent Barak Ravid, US envoy for Iran Rob Malley said the Biden administration is not currently looking to revive the JCPOA deal under the pretext of Tehran's so-called "crackdown" on protesters, its alleged involvement in supplying Russia with drones, and its stance on Iran's nuclear program.

Although the White House has not yet confirmed that the talks have reached a dead-end, Malley's statements surely hint that this sentiment is present in Washington.

According to Ravid, another source had told Axios the US' stance on the JCPOA talks was even tougher, arguing that in light of the accusations raised against Iran, "if Iran came back to the table today and said it wanted a nuclear deal, the US was unlikely to move forward."

Rob Malley said the US "hasn't given up on diplomacy to solve the Iranian nuclear issue", but pointed out that the White House may have to resort to military means to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Days earlier, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran had received a message from the US in which they expressed a hurry in reaching an agreement.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also said the US should come to a sound and final decision to remove sanctions on Iran and reach an agreement, but instead, it delays and wastes time in reviving a deal it has itself vetoed.

The latest round of refusal from the United States to sit back at the negotiations table was over the riots that took place in Iran, which Tehran accuses the US, the Israeli occupation, and several western countries of backing and financially supporting.