The case is progressing painfully but optimism reigns. Iran has asked for “some adjustments” to the agreement proposal submitted by the European Union to participants in the Iranian nuclear negotiations, said Tuesday the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
In an interview with Spanish National Television, the latter confirmed that “the majority” of the participants had accepted the Iranian demands, the content of which he did not reveal, and that only “the response from the United States is missing”. .
The Iranian nuclear negotiations, which resumed in Vienna in the spring of 2021, aim to save the international agreement concluded in 2015 with the Tehran regime by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, States United States, France, United Kingdom and Russia) plus Germany, from which Washington withdrew in 2018 under President Donald Trump.
The objective of this agreement was to limit and control the Iranian nuclear program in order to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons, in exchange for an easing of international sanctions weighing on the country.
The expected American response
The EU, which coordinates the talks in Vienna on this file, indicated on August 8 that it had submitted to the participants “a final text” and that it “would not be renegotiated”, asking all the parties to accept it. “Iran responded by saying Yes, butthat is to say, they want some more adjustments,” said Josep Borrell during the interview.
During a press conference on Monday in Santander (northern Spain), he confided that the Iranian response had seemed to him “reasonable” and that, for this reason, it had been transmitted to the six other countries concerned. “We are waiting for the response” from these countries, he continued. “Most of them are in agreement, but the response from the United States is missing (…) and we hope that we will receive a response during the week”.
Reacting to remarks by the Iranian government, which accused the United States of dragging things out, the American State Department explained on Monday that there remained “outstanding questions”, a reference to the “adjustments” demanded by Tehran as a condition of his agreement.
“We are encouraged that Iran appears to have dropped some of its unacceptable demands, such as lifting the designation of the Revolutionary Guards” as a terrorist organization, the Department of Defense spokesman said. State, Ned Price, stressing that the West and Iran were “closer to an agreement than two weeks ago”.
