US denounces Iranian regime has no real intention to revert to nuclear deal

The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken said on Sunday it was not clear whether Iran was ready to take the necessary steps to allow it to return to compliance with the international nuclear deal.

Speaking ahead of a fifth round of talks in Vienna on saving the deal, Blinken was asked about information from the Iranian side indicating that Washington has already agreed to lift some of the sanctions on the Iranian economy.

“We know what sanctions should be lifted if they are inconsistent with the nuclear deal,” he told ABC. And he felt that the most important thing is that Iran “knows what it needs to do to come back into compliance on nuclear issues.” “What we haven’t seen is whether Iran is ready to make a decision,” he said. “This is the test and we still have no answer,” he added.

Donald Trump withdrew the country from the deal in 2017, saying Tehran had violated its “spirit” and remained a regional threat. His successor Joe Biden wants to relaunch the pact. For that to happen, Washington must agree to lift sanctions reinstated by Trump, and Tehran must commit to abiding by the terms of the deal.

Once Trump decided to back out of the deal, the Islamic Republic began to drop restrictions on its production of nuclear materials.

European participants in the Vienna talks expressed their optimism following the latest round of negotiations which ended on Wednesday. “We have made good progressEnrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired the talks between Russia, China, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Iran, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “An agreement is looming,” he added.

Indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran have been taking place in the Austrian capital since early April, with the other five signatory countries playing the role of intermediaries.

Diplomats hope the United States will return on board ahead of Iran’s June 18 presidential election.

United Nations atomic agency blockade

Iran’s parliament said on Sunday that the temporary inspection agreement between Iran and the United Nations atomic agency (IAEA) had expired and that body would not be able to access images recorded at nuclear facilities . “The agency’s quarterly deadline was until July 1 (May 22) and, based on this, the IAEA does not have the right to access Atomic Energy Organization images and information. from Iran. Yesterday it was discussed and decided»Informed the President of the Chamber, Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf.

The IAEA succeeded in reaching a three-month interim agreement to verify Iran’s nuclear program on February 21. The pact stipulated that if the United States had not lifted the sanctions against Iran within this time frame, the aforementioned images would not be delivered to the UN agency.

It is not known what will happen to this temporary inspection agreement, on the extension of which Iran and the IAEA have negotiated, and an announcement is expected from the director of the UN nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi. ., who called a press conference this afternoon.

This arrangement was made with the aim of mitigating the impact of the end of Iran’s application of the so-called Additional Protocol, which granted IAEA inspectors free access to any site in Iran, without notice. This measure to limit inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities is in fact contained in a law approved by the Iranian parliament last December with the aim of putting pressure on the United States to lift its sanctions against the Persian country.

About, Qalibaf stressed that Parliament is “determined” that the aforementioned law “is applied on the dates specified”, while insisting that the Supreme Leader, Alí ​​Jamaneí, agrees with it., according to state media. MP Alí Reza Salimí also called during the open session of Parliament today that the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Alí ​​Akbar Salehí, be ordered “to remove the videos and images cameras.

The interim pact expired without the negotiations in Vienna to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, although substantial progress has been made, but a further reduction in inspections could undermine those talks.

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