Iran Says Nuclear Talks Not Dead, Urges US to Make a Move

 

Iran says messages still being exchanged

by Jason Ditz 

Posted onMay 3, 2022CategoriesNewsTagsIran

Reports out of the Vienna talks have gone from pessimistic to defeatist in recent days, with Western officials suggesting they aren’t ready to declare talks “dead” but also don’t expect anything more to come out of them.

But the talks aren’t dead yet, and Iran wants to reiterate that fact. The Iranian diplomats say that messages are still being exchanged with the US, the indirect talks are effectively as they ever were, if not going very fast.

Iranian officials are shaping this matter as requiring the current US government to take a political initiative to get things going again. There hasn’t, by all indications, been a big movement in a solid seven weeks.

One of the last issues to emerge was the issue of the IRGC being removed from a terror blacklist. The US refused to do this, and suggested that Iran would need to offer extra concessions for it. Such a move was seen as politically risky for Biden, and since the refusal the US seems to have just sat on the talks.

US Republicans seem to prefer to let the matter just die, with Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) condemning Iran’s “terrorist policies” and saying that no US president after Biden would honor the deal anyhow.

Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but that’s been a serious concern of Iran’s and Sen. Young, in telling that to the Iranian press, is clearly trying to damage the process.

America’s trustworthiness questions aren’t lost on anyone, and it’s a point Iran has emphasized repeatedly during the talks in trying to get the US to reverse the dishonoring of the pact.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/05/03/iran-says-nuclear-talks-not-dead-urges-us-to-make-a-move/