JCPOA deal getting closer – but challenges remain
‘The E3/EU+3 have been engaged in intensive negotiations with Iran for 11 months. We are now very close to finalising a deal…returning Iran’s nuclear programme to JCPOA limits as well as restoring JCPOA transparency measures…’
So said the UK ambassador to the international Atomic Agency (‘IAEA’), Corinne Kitsell, in a statement to the Agency in which she also warned that, such is the ‘rate of advances in Iran’s nuclear programme,’ the deal could not remain on the table indefinitely, and ‘the window of opportunity is closing.’
‘We call on all sides to make the decisions necessary to close this deal now, and on Russia not to add extraneous conditions to its conclusion,’ said Kitsell.
Given Russia’s inclusion in the parties negotiating with Iran, there have been fears that the conflict in Ukraine might see Moscow attempting to gain leverage through skewing or sabotaging the talks.
But at a 9 March press briefing, US secretary of state Antony Blinken told press, ‘With regard to the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, we continue to work to see if we can come back to mutual compliance with Iran on the deal. Russia continues to be engaged in those efforts, and it has its own interests in ensuring that Iran is not able to acquire a nuclear weapon.’
