Patrick Wintour
The Guardian, Dec. 20, 2022
“Europe is determined not to give up hopes of salvaging the nuclear deal on the basis that if Iran starts enriching to 90% it will have enough enriched uranium to make a bomb even if it lacks the missile warheads to deliver.”
Wary western powers face an unlikely potential dilemma after a sudden push by Tehran to suggest that progress is being made to remove the last outstanding obstacles to a revived agreement to oversee Iran’s nuclear programme.
The unlikely prospect of Joe Biden reviving the dormant 2015 nuclear deal, potentially lifting sanctions and opening the way for Iran to make billions of dollars in oil exports, would be seen as a gross betrayal by supporters of three-month-long street protests, as well as a controversial signal to send to Ukraine about Washington’s priorities.
The west has accused Iran of providing hundreds of drones to Russia, and urged the UN to investigate whether the supply represents a breach of Iran’s obligations under existing UN security council resolutions.
But the EU’s Iran negotiators have insisted that restraining Iran’s nuclear programme must be treated separately from all other Iranian issues, including its arming of Russia and domestic suppression.
At the weekend the head of Iran’s steering council of foreign relations, Kamal Kharazi, said the only remaining outstanding obstacle to a nuclear agreement was settling the long-running dispute between Iran and the UN nuclear inspectorate the IAEA over the origins and explanation of nuclear particles found at three sites in 2019. He is one of the few Iranian officials to claim all the other issues between the US and Iran over the revival of the deal had been resolved. … [To read the full article, click here]
