While President Joe Biden’s administration is apparently keeping the details of the new Iran deal from Congress and the American people, Russia’s chief nuclear negotiator claims that the nuclear agreement could be finalized within hours.
The Obama-era deal with Iran could be restored in “24 hours, maybe 48 hours,” Russian envoy Mikhail Ulyanov told reporters on Thursday. The negotiating parties deliberating in Vienna, Austria have resolved all major differences, and “the outstanding issues are relatively small,” the envoy added.
Embarrassing concessions by the Biden White House could include lifting all sanctions on Iran and removing the Islamic Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s foreign terrorist arm, from the U.S. terror list.
Other negotiators in Vienna also echoed the statement made by their Russian counterparts. “After weeks of intense negotiations in Vienna involving the U.S. and Iran, and Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, senior diplomats said they were now within reach of an agreement that would restore the 2015 deal,” The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The Biden White House hopes to ram his deal through, despite the Republican opposition over the issue in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. On Wednesday, NBC News reported that the “Biden administration is gambling it can withstand fierce Republican opposition and return the U.S. to” the 2015 deal.
Reuters reported the key role played by the Russians as the deal is being finalized:
Talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal appeared to near a climax with talk of an imminent ministerial meeting as a U.N. report on Thursday showed Iran is most of the way to amassing enough enriched uranium for one bomb if purified further.”We are close to a possible deal,” Jalina Porter, the U.S. State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, told reporters but cautioned that unsolved issues remained and that time was of the essence given the pace of Iran’s nuclear advances. (…)The U.N. nuclear watchdog report was seen by Reuters as negotiators seek to resurrect the deal between world powers and Iran under which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions that slashed its oil exports. (…)”There are some issues that need to be finalised … the outstanding issues are relatively small, but not yet settled,” said Russia’s envoy, Mikhail Ulyanov, who in public has been the most optimistic participant in the 11 months of talks.Ulyanov told reporters that he did not believe the talks would now collapse and a ministerial meeting – typically where a deal would be blessed – was likely but he could not say if it would be on Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
The news comes as France and Germany are putting massive pressure to close the deal with the Iranians. “There is indeed critical urgency to conclude the negotiations this week,” France’s foreign ministry spokesman said this week.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also pushing the Western negotiators to strike a deal with the Mullah regime. “Now is the time to make a decision,” the German leader said on Wednesday. “This must not be postponed any longer and cannot be postponed any longer.”
Russia, which is also Iran’s preferred weapons supplier, has played a crucial role in the Vienna talks to restore the failed 2015 deal. With Moscow facing increasing isolation in the West in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin hopes to boost its global image by playing the peacemaker.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine, Iran’s Mullahs have his back. On February 24, as the Russian leader ordered the invasion, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi expressed support for his position. “President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The president of Iran expressed understanding concerning Russia’s security concerns caused by the destabilizing actions of the US and NATO,” the Russian foreign ministry’s statement said.
As China-Russia military alliance takes shape — with both powers signing a defense agreement, Iran is eying to join this axis aimed at the U.S. and its Western allies. Last month, Iranian, Chinese, and Russian navies fought war games in the northern Indian Ocean. With the $400 billion trade and military agreement reached between China and Iran in 2020, Tehran allows the Chinese military to use its military and air bases, the media reports say.
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