Biden Admin Yet To Deny Claims Of Possible Interim Deal With Iran

Nosratollah Tajik also said in his interview with reformist daily Etemad that the revival of the JCPOA has been almost forgotten as a result of miscalculations by Iran and the West.

Russia and China have taken advantage of the situation to strengthen their presence in the region, he argued, warning that Iran should not ignore the implications of this strategic development.

Referring to Iran's rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, Tajik noted that good regional relations will be helpful only if Iran has no problems in its international relations. In other words, good ties with neighbors are essential but not enough for Iran. The revival of the JCPOA can pave the way for Iran to leave behind its global isolation.

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This comes while according to Tajik, the West sees the recent joint military exercise by Russia, China and Iran in regional waters as a manifestation of Tehran's pro-East policy and a challenge to the United States.

In another development, former government spokesman Ali Rabiei wrote in a commentary in Etemad that "Those who thought US sanctions would benefit Iran have now realized that sanctions cost Iranian lives and bring about breath-taking poverty to the country.

Many Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have claimed since the 2010s that sanctions have helped Iran to make indigenous progress, but they failed to present any evidence of economic success, while economists have maintained that the sanctions have led to Iran's worst crisis in modern history particularly by reducing oil exports and restricting international banking.

Meanwhile, Rabiei predicted that Iran's problems are likely to redouble in the current year as a result of the nationwide protests that have rocked the country in since September 2022. He further predicted that "what started last year is most likely to continue in the current year. He said, "Sometimes such events affect a whole generation by bringing to surface deep-rooted social, economic and political problems as well as Iran's fundamentalist cultural policies" that bring a modern nation face to face with the government.

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Likewise, he said that last year's protests have their roots in developments throughout 2020 and 2021, including elections that were not free and fair. Also, a pandemic that was not properly managed and US sanctions, that continued even after Donald Trump left the White House although the situation of sanctions has been slightly less difficult for Iran during Biden's presidency. However, the economic problems resulting from the sanctions created a state of despair that strengthened other destabilizing factors.

Despite these lessons, conservative daily Jomhouri Eslami wrote in an editorial on April 3 that Iran's ultraconservative President Ebrahim "Raisi is adamant to go ahead with his failed policies."

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The daily wrote that rhetoric by senior officials during the first two weeks of the Iranian New Year that started on March 21 show that the government is not inclines to change counter-productive policies. The daily was referring in particular to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's position on hijab enforcement and other cultural issues in his New Year address, without naming him. The daily advised officials to see the people's lack of trust in the government, their daily protests in different forms and the number of those who leave the country to realize that “Iran is not feeling well.”

The editorial further suggested that the government should end the political game over the negotiations to revive the JCPOA and reconsider its approach to relations with the West to solve Iran’s serious economic crisis.

According to a report by Barak Ravid, its correspondent in Israel, Axios said that according to ten Israeli and Western sources the administration shared the plan with allies.

In exchange for freezing Iran’s uranium enrichment at 60 percent the US would ease some sanctions. If true, Iran would gain the advantage of being a few months away from producing 90-percent enriched uranium needed for a nuclear weapon and enjoy the benefits of sanctions relief.

The report says that Israeli officials told the Biden team that Iran would be threading on dangerous ground that could lead to an Israeli military strike if it enriches above the 60-percent level.

Since September when nuclear talks reached a deadlock the Biden administration has been insisting that it is no longer focused on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA. The White House has been insisting on Iran respecting human rights and refraining from supplying weapons to Russia, in what seems to be a new and tougher position regarding the Iranian regime.

A US National Security Council spokesman told Axios that the administration is “absolutely committed to ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon, and we still believe diplomacy is the best way to achieve that objective,” but rejected the report of a partial deal as second-hand rumors, insisting that “nearly all such rumors are false.”.

Gen. Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, the coordinating deputy to IRGC commander Hossein Salami, in a speech on Wednesday stressed that Iran needs to rely on its internal capabilities instead of counting on economic improvement through negotiations. He was referring to nuclear talks with the United States and its allies that could lift sanctions and offer the battered economy a lifeline.

Naghdi also repeated criticism by other hardliners that former President Hassan Rouhani linked the fate of the country to negotiations with the West.

Iran’s economy entered a long-lasting crisis after 2018 when former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA and imposed sanctions.

Naghdi also urged Iranians to obey Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to achieve a better future. Last week, clerics loyal to Iran’s 83-year-old ruler also praised him as God’s representative and urged obedience.

Anti-regime protests that began last September in Iran were largely directed against Khamenei, who is seen by many as dictating policy at every level and responsible for increasing poverty in the country. Most Iranians are in favor of talks with the West and yearn for the lifting of sanctions to improve their lives.

Protesters also want social and political freedoms and see Khamenei as the leader of hardliners who control the authoritarian government.

Ulyanov said on Monday that the talks to restore the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic remains at an impasse, noting that chances of completing the negotiation process are very small.

The volte-face comes despite Ulyanov usual optimism, as the only voice who kept vouching for the success of Vienna talks with tweets about the prospect of restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iranian nuclear program.

“Formally, a draft package solution remains on the negotiating table, providing for a phased return of Iran to the fulfillment of its obligations under the JCPOA and the lifting of illegitimate US extraterritorial sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ulyanov said. 

“This package is the result of intensive and lengthy negotiations in Vienna with the participation of Russia, Iran, China, the Eurotroika, the United States and the EU Foreign Service, which acted as a coordinator,” he added. 

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Russia was an active player in the talks from April 2021 to February 2022, when it invaded Ukraine. The negotiations in Vienna ended in early March. The chief US negotiator Robert Malley was often meeting with Ulyanov to discuss the talks. 

The last push by the EU to broker a deal in August 2022 reached a deadlock amid key disagreements between Tehran and Washington, as well as the Islamic Republic’s vague response to the IAEA about uranium traces at several sites.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of Iran's atomic agency told a press conference on March 15 that “If there will be further questions, we will answer and talk to each other to determine how these issues can be followed up,” referring to issues related to the IAEA.

The IAEA discovered three undeclared locations in 2019 with traces of uranium. The locations dated back to before 2003 when Iran had a secret nuclear program. The UN nuclear watchdog has been demanding satisfactory answers about the three sites but it says that so far Tehran’s explanations have not been technically credible.

Tehran is now seeking to restore the nuclear agreement to see the sanctions lifted, but US officials have repeatedly said their focus is not on the revival of the JCPOA at the moment. Meanwhile, the IAEA confirmed earlier this year that its inspectors had found particles of enriched uranium with a purity of 83.7 percent at Fordow enrichment facility near Tehran.

However, following a visit to Tehran earlier this month, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran is ready to cooperate on the three locations and agreed to re-install additional monitoring equipment such as cameras at nuclear sites.

Grossi stressed that agreements still need to be discussed and he cannot yet guarantee the success of his negotiations with Tehran. After more than three weeks there have been no meetings to resolve issues, despite Grossi’s earlier promises in March that there would be “meetings soon.”

A senior Israeli official, who accompanied Netanyahu on his trip to London on Friday, informed Iran International that the Israeli prime minister told UK's Rishi Sunak that "military attacks on nuclear facilities in Iran are not the only solution for Israel, and this country is considering other solutions to stop Iran."

Since mid-2020, several acts of sabotage and explosions in Iran's nuclear facilities have been attributed to Israel.

Successive Israeli governments have firmly stated that the Jewish state will not tolerate a nuclear armed Iran and will use all options to protect its security.

This senior official added that Israel demands US military support and European sanctions to prevent Iran from moving towards 90% uranium enrichment. Iran has been enriching up to 60 percent since 2021 in violations of the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers, known as the JCPOA.

US officials have said that Iran has accumulated enough enriched uranium to be able to produce sufficient for producing enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon in two weeks.

The United States has adopted a tougher tone toward Iran since long-running nuclear talks reached a deadlock last September and public opinion was shaken by a violent and deadly crackdown of protests in Iran. Western powers have also become alarmed by Iran’s delivery of suicide drones to Russia.

Israel and Britain have highly advanced intelligence ties, and their cooperation has so far prevented terrorist attacks by the Islamic Republic in Europe.

Netanyahu met with his British counterpart Rishi Sunak in London on Friday to discuss Iran’s nuclear and conventional threats, among other issues.

Readouts of the Friday meeting from both sides said the two talked about the security and defense challenges they share, including the threat posed by Iran, as well as ways to strengthen the relationship between Britain and Israel.

Netanyahu also invited Sunak for an official visit to Israel, the Israeli statement said. He left Downing Street less than an hour after he arrived as hundreds of protesters gathered at the gates of No 10 to demonstrate against the Israeli prime minister’s policies, especially his overhaul of the judiciary.

Downing Street said that in his meeting with Netanyahu, Sunak "stressed the importance of upholding the democratic values that underpin our relationship, including in the proposed judicial reforms in Israel.”

It added that the two men also discussed the war in Ukraine and Iran's "destabilizing activity", as well as its nuclear program, and agreed that their “governments would continue to work closely together to push back against aggression and manage the risk of nuclear proliferation.”

Earlier in the week, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was in London to press Jerusalem’s position about the Islamic Republic’s threat and bolster bilateral economic ties.

The Israeli diplomat signed an agreement called the 2030 Roadmap for UK-Israeli Bilateral Relations, which according to the British Foreign Office “contains detailed commitments for deepening cooperation across the breadth of the Israel-UK relationship, including on trade, cyber, science and tech, research and development, security, health, etc.”