The military option is out of question: Western sources to Al Mayadeen
Western bloc sources tell Al Mayadeen that the demands the Iranians are raising in the nuclear talks are mostly related to the lifting of US sanctions before everything else.
Western sources close to their countries' negotiators in Vienna confirmed that negotiating with Iran remains the only way, so far, to reach understandings that recommit to the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). According to the sources, the Western bloc's decision so far is to continue with the negotiation, hinting that the military option as an alternative to negotiations is "out of the question."
These sources told Al Mayadeen that the negotiating process was stalled on and that the Iranian side "has not yet taken any step that expresses its commitment to return to what the nuclear program was within the parameters of the Vienna Agreement."
The same sources added that all that the Iranians raise for discussion relates only to the issue of "lifting US sanctions before anything else."
The Western bloc sources added that Western countries are ready to return to the JCPOA "with all its details and clauses," which means that "Iran will get rid of advanced centrifuges, and also get rid of the quantities of enriched uranium above the 3.67% according to the Vienna Agreement."
In return, "The sanctions on Iran will be lifted,” said the sources without clarifying whether the United States is ready to lift all sanctions, fulfilling Iran's demands, or to keep a part of them.
Western sources indicated that “There is a set of possible ways out for the fate of the centrifuges and uranium enrichment above 3.67%, such as transferring the quantities outside of Iran, selling them, or placing them under the permanent supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The sources explained the reasons for the insistence of Western countries to return to what was agreed on in the past six rounds. They said that the Western bloc thinks that if the seventh round had resumed from the point at which it stopped and continued in the manner that prevailed until June 20, the time for reaching an agreement would have been much shorter.
They concluded that the drafts that Iran put forward with the resumption of negotiations changed the whole equation.