Raisi says US should lift sanctions before restarting nuclear talks
Middle East peace will depend on more than just reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement
The US should lift its sanctions on Iran to prove it is serious about restarting stalled nuclear talks in Vienna, Iran’s president has said.
Ebrahim Raisi told state TV that Iran wanted “goal-orientated” talks with western powers and said Tehran “never left” the negotiation table.
“Lifting sanctions is an indication of the seriousness of the other party,” he said.
Talks between Iran and European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, alongside Russia and China, have been stalled since June. Mr Raisi, who took office in August, has not fixed a date for resuming talks.
Iran has been resisting calls for a quick resumption of the talks in Vienna. Instead, it wants to meet separately with the other parties in Brussels before returning to the table.
As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the chief of the UN’s atomic watchdog in Washington on Monday, the State Department said the Biden administration did not believe a preliminary meeting in Brussels was needed.
Mr Blinken and others have said the window for diplomacy is closing.
“To be clear, we do not think it is necessary,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said when asked about a meeting in Brussels.
“We have been very clear that the destination we seek is Vienna not an intermediate step in Brussels.”
But Mr Raisi said Iran “is serious in this issue; we should see the seriousness in the other party”.
The 2015 nuclear deal led to Tehran limiting its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
In 2018, US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the accord, raising tensions across the wider Middle East.
With the talks in Vienna now stalled, Iran has breached limits on its uranium enrichment and its stockpile continues to grow.
Last week, an EU delegation left Tehran without agreeing to a timeline to resume negotiations for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. But they didn’t leave empty-handed, having scheduled a meeting in Brussels on Thursday for more detailed consultations.
The EU has been pressing Iran to return to the table, four months after talks were stalled due to its presidential election. With Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President, having been in office for two months, these talks – involving the permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany – need to find new momentum.
Another obstacle in the way of the startstop talks has been the US administration’s belated recognition of a key position among Arab states: that it isn’t just Iran’s nuclear ambitions that pose a threat to global peace but also its ballistic missiles programme and its expansionist activities across the Arab world, particularly in countries struggling with weak governance and sectarian strife. In Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, Tehran’s proxies have undermined the governments of the day and their national sovereignty for years. Iran also threatens maritime security in the Arabian Gulf.
One of the limits with the 2015 deal – which scaled back sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbing its nuclear activity – is that it helped unlock funds necessary for Tehran to bankroll its proxies. And it is for this reason that the administration of president Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018.
That the US President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to maintain pressure on the regime and refuse to lift sanctions until they agree to an deal is a welcome departure from its original objective of re-entering the 2015 arrangement at any cost. Time is of the essence, however.
It is suspected that Mr Raisi is stalling for time. With Iran having accelerated its nuclear programme, it could be a matter of months before it accumulates enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb. The most sensible approach towards containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions is to continue engaging with the regime, but without giving too many cards away. Last month’s deal between the nuclear watchdog, IAEA, and Tehran, to continue video surveillance of the nuclear sites after an interim agreement expired in June, was a step in this direction. Under this agreement, Iran would preserve video surveillance footage but would not turn it over to the IAEA until it agreed with the US to restore the nuclear deal.
The EU’s recent efforts to draw Tehran back to talks are crucial towards this end. But it is equally important for Iran to engage positively with Arab states. Saudi Arabia and Iran have held talks since the beginning of this year, and this process could help move things forward.
A grand bargain doesn’t have to come in the form of a comprehensive deal that includes curbs on all of Tehran’s activities – at least, not in one swoop. Nonetheless, that the 2015 deal’s signatories are considering the interests of all the regional players by expanding the scope of their dialogue with Iran is key to achieving security in the region.