EU Proposes Significant Concession to Iran to Revive Nuclear Deal

[Sineva]

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EU Proposes Significant Concession to Iran to Revive Nuclear Deal​

Diplomats offer a way to end a U.N. atomic-agency investigation that Iran wants closed​

https://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-proposes-significant-concession-to-iran-to-revive-nuclear-deal-11660242907
BERLIN—European Union diplomats trying to break a deadlock in talks over an Iran nuclear accord have proposed a significant new concession to Tehran aimed at speedily ending a U.N. investigation into the Islamic Republic’s past atomic activities.

A key sticking point in 16-month-old talks to revive the 2015 deal, which put limits on Iran’s nuclear programs in exchange for sanctions relief, has been a probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency into undeclared nuclear material found in Iran in 2019.

That material, Israel and Western officials contend, is evidence that Iran once had a clandestine atomic-weapons program, something Tehran has long denied, saying it is only interested in a civilian nuclear program.
In the nuclear negotiations, Iran has pressed for an end to the investigation since at least March. U.S. and European officials, meanwhile, have said they won’t negotiate over the investigation by the IAEA, an independent watchdog, which they say is unrelated to the nuclear deal.

A draft text of the proposal from the EU, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, would have Iran agree to address the IAEA’s concerns before the pact takes effect, saying Iran is expected to answer the agency’s questions “with a view to clarifying them.”
If the agency confirms in a report that Tehran has cooperated, the U.S. and the other parties in the talks would then urge the IAEA Board of member states to close the investigation, the text says.
The EU team, which chairs the talks and has responsibility for drafting the agreement, has said this is the final text it will offer to revive the nuclear deal.
If all the parties to the accord, the U.S., Iran, Germany, France, the U.K., Russia and China agree to the proposed text, it would put the International Atomic Energy Agency into a difficult spot, with the implementation of the deal resting largely on its assessment of Tehran’s cooperation.
A spokesman for the IAEA declined to comment. The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, has vowed to never abandon the investigation until Iran answers where the nuclear material originated and where it is now.
After it circulated its proposals on Monday, EU, European and U.S. diplomats said the negotiations were now over. The EU has told Iran and the other parties it wants a yes or no response to the text by Aug. 15, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.
A State Department spokesman said: “We are carefully studying the EU’s proposed final text and will provide our answer to them as asked.”
A senior U.S. official said Washington wants to see the IAEA investigation resolved. “The only way for that to happen is for Iran to provide the agency the information they need,” the official said. “That’s our position regardless of whether it’s expressed in the text of an understanding or elsewhere.”
Iranian officials said Tuesday they had only started reviewing the text. In recent days they have suggested more talks may be needed, leaving the fate of the agreement uncertain.
Russia’s chief negotiator in the talks said Thursday that it isn’t for the EU to lay down ultimatums in the negotiation.

While the EU crafted the proposal to include a compromise on the safeguards probe in the nuclear-deal text, it did so with the knowledge of the U.S. and the three European parties to the deal—France, Germany and Britain, according to people familiar with the talks.
The Biden administration has set the revival of the 2015 nuclear pact as a key foreign-policy goal. The Trump administration took the U.S. out of the agreement in 2018. A year later Iran started systematically breaching the nuclear restrictions in the agreement.
An EU spokesman said: “The text submitted to participating parties after the latest talks in Vienna is—in line with the usual confidentiality of such diplomatic processes—now for the participating parties to consider, and not for discussions in the media.”
The IAEA’s probe of Iran goes to the core of the agency’s responsibilities—ensuring that nuclear material in its member countries isn’t being diverted for military purposes.
The agency and Western capitals have accused Tehran of stonewalling and providing misleading answers. In June, the U.S. and their European allies won overwhelming backing for a censure resolution at the IAEA Board calling on Tehran to cooperate with the probe.
The issue is highly sensitive for Iran, which has always denied it had a nuclear-weapons program. Many Western officials believe the undeclared material dates from work Iran conducted on a nuclear-weapons program that continued until at least 2003.
If Iran doesn’t cooperate with the IAEA, the agency could send the investigation to the United Nations Security Council.
The pledge to close the probe if Iran answers the IAEA’s questions offers a riposte to Tehran’s repeated claim that the U.S. and European powers are behind the probe and are seeking to use it as leverage against Tehran.
According to Western officials familiar with discussions, the concession was crafted largely by the EU. U.S. and European officials hadn’t seen the text until it was circulated on Monday, although some were aware it would include safeguards language.
Iran’s IAEA demand became the main sticking point for the deal, once Iran in recent weeks shelved its demand that Washington remove the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps from its most stringent terrorist-sanctions listings as part of the revival of the nuclear deal.
President Biden pledged not to do that, leading to a months long standoff over the accord.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
Appeared in the August 12, 2022, print edition as 'EU Floats Concession to Iran in Talks'.

 

[BlessedKingOfLonging]

I curse Rouhani for having brought about this accursed accord. There was no need to indulge in this rubbish, only to waste considerable time, effort and resources into something that will go nowhere because the other side has sat down with a resolve to break the treaty from the get-go.