It was actually a declared goal of US President Biden to revive the nuclear deal with Iran that Trump had canceled. But the negotiations have been deadlocked for months. Now the government is putting the plan on hold.
The US is giving up efforts to revive the nuclear deal with Iran for the time being. While the door will be left open for negotiations, the US government will now focus on a policy of sanctions and pressure, US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley told journalists in Paris. He justified the change of course with the actions of Iranian security forces against anti-government demonstrators and with the sale of combat drones to Russia. In addition, the negotiations have not progressed.
At talks in Vienna, a compromise in the dispute over the agreement had been sought for months without success. The 2015 agreement between the Islamic Republic and an international group of six countries limited uranium enrichment in Iran. This should make the development of nuclear weapons more difficult. In return, sanctions against Iran were lifted. In 2018, then US President Donald Trump unilaterally terminated the treaty and imposed new sanctions.
Iran then began breaking its promises. The current US President Joe Biden originally wanted to revive the agreement. If Iran crosses new borders with its nuclear program, then there will be a response coordinated with its European partners, said Malley without going into specifics. According to diplomats, Malley will coordinate with his French, British and German counterparts in Paris on Tuesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly warned that Iran is stepping up efforts to enrich Iran. Highly enriched uranium is a raw material for atomic bombs. Iran denies having any such intentions but does not allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities.
