Biden administration responds to Iran’s nuke offer
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Wednesday responded to Iran’s latest offer to resume its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, but neither side is offering a definitive path to revive the agreement, which has been on life-support since former President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.
State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed that the administration completed its review of Iran’s comments on a European proposal. Price did not detail the response.
“As you know, we received Iran’s comments on the EU’s proposed final text through the EU,” Price said. “Our review of those comments has now concluded.”
There is now expected to be another exchange of technical details followed by a meeting of the joint commission that oversees the deal. The new developments, including stepped-up public messaging campaigns by both Tehran and Washington, suggest that an agreement could be near.
Despite the forward movement, numerous hurdles remain. And key sticking points could still unravel efforts to bring back the 2015 deal under which Iran received billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program intended to prevent it from developing an atomic weapon.
Even U.S. supporters of an agreement are no longer referring to the “longer and stronger” deal that they had initially set out to win when indirect negotiations with Iran began last spring. And, on the Iranian side, demands for greater U.S. sanctions relief than the administration appears willing or able to promise could undercut the push to revive the agreement.
The Biden administration faces considerable political opposition to returning to the 2015 deal from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress who remain unconvinced that it is in U.S. national security interests.
The recent indictment of an Iranian for plotting to murder Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton and the attack by an apparent Iran sympathizer on the author Salman Rushdie have further contributed to doubts that Iran can be trusted.
The latest EU proposal does not include Tehran’s demand that the U.S. lift the terrorism designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Iran has stepped back from a demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency close its investigation into unexplained traces of uranium at three undeclared sites, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to discuss ongoing efforts to resurrect the deal.