Europe deplores stalled nuclear talks with Iran
The optimism shown by Josep Borrell a fortnight ago with the start of the nuclear talks in Vienna has faded as the days have gone by. While the European diplomat Enrique Mora said he felt sure "that we could be doing important things in the coming weeks", the latest meetings with representatives of Ebrahim Raisi's government suggest the opposite. Europe believes that Tehran is being unreasonable and that the negotiations are far from productive, as the change of position following the Iranian elections last summer has resulted in an inconsistent stance.
"At this point, we have not yet been able to get to real negotiations," say diplomats from the UK, France and Germany. It is no longer just that the distance is great, but that the main European forces are questioning Iran's intentions. Some even suggest that the whole thing could be a strategy by Iran to gain time to develop nuclear weapons, something that Tehran has repeatedly denied. Diplomats say they have "had many hours of engagement and all delegations have pressed Iran to be reasonable", something that, for the moment, is far from being achieved.
What really worries the international community is that, after two weeks of negotiations, the picture is the same as it was five months ago, when talks came to a halt, also without progress. "We are wasting precious time dealing with new Iranian positions that are inconsistent with the (nuclear deal) or go beyond it," Europe believes. This contrasts sharply with the words of Ali Bagheri, Iran's chief negotiator, who told the official news agency Irna that "the two sides are on the verge of agreeing on the issues that should be on the agenda".
"This is a positive and important development since, at the beginning, they did not even agree on the issues to be negotiated," Bagheri added. Tehran maintains that its commitment to the talks is serious and that its intention is to continue the talks. However, they have always maintained that the main objective for them was to end the sanctions imposed by Washington since the White House itself, under the presidency of Donald Trump, decided to abandon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) unilaterally in 2018.
If Iran's position is clear, the US position is no less so. Joe Biden said last week that not only is his government not considering lifting sanctions on Iranians at this time, but that it is preparing "additional measures". If this trend continues, hopes of reaching a new agreement do not seem to be high. For the Iranian government the JCPOA is 'a red line' and 'will not accept anything less than the (2015) agreement'. And it is true that the progress Iran has made on its nuclear plan since Raisi's arrival does not leave much room for US demands.
Signing the nuclear deal six years ago was not easy, but this one seems almost impossible. Washington will not withdraw its sanctions and is putting new ones on the table. For its part, Iran has 17 times more enriched uranium than it had in 2015, bordering on the risk of developing nuclear weapons. Weeks go by, the positions do not budge and Iran's nuclear plan does not stop. Iran's stockpile of 60 per cent enriched uranium continues to grow, increasing the risk for all countries in the international community. If there is no change in the trend during the next meetings, the alarm bells will go off and the nightmare of no deal will become a reality.