UN official says US may be willing to resume Iran nuclear deal

AN American return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran remains possible, but both sides need to be prepared to negotiate, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has said.

The United States pulled out of the deal unilaterally in 2018 under Donald Trump, but President Joe Biden has indicated Washington would be willing to rejoin.

Complicating the matter, however, Iran has been steadily violating the restrictions of the deal, over issues such as the amount of enriched uranium it can stockpile and the purity to which it can enrich it.

Its moves have been calculated to put pressure on the other nations in the deal – Russia, China, France, Germany and the UK – to do more to offset crippling sanctions reimposed under Mr Trump. Tehran has said that, before it resumes compliance with the deal, the US needs to return to its own obligations under the deal by dropping sanctions.

Asked about Iran’s insistence that the US take the first step, International Atomic Energy Agency director General Rafael Grossi told the European Parliament that “it takes two to tango”. He noted that over the past two years Iran has accumulated a lot of nuclear material and new capacities, and used the time for “honing their skills in these areas”.

“Even if you had a magic wand or the hand of God and said we go back tomorrow, there will be a lot of housekeeping,” he said. “They [the US] want to come back. It’s not impossible.”