DOHA, Qatar (Washington Insider Magazine) – With little indication of a breakthrough in attempts to resurrect a 2015 nuclear agreement, indirect negotiations between Iran and the U.S. concluded in Doha, Qatar, increasing the likelihood of a future conflict with Tehran.
Enrique Mora, a representative of the European Union, served as a liaison between President Joe Biden’s special envoy Rob Malley and Iranian top negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani in the Qatari capital, relaying communications back and forth between the 2 parties. Iran has declined to speak with the American team directly.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, a 2015 nuclear agreement, was created to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The Biden office has been working to resurrect the JCPOA since former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it in 2018.
The Biden administration is under rising pressure in Washington as well as from Middle Eastern partners to examine additional strategies to confront Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Biden administration reportedly gave a confidential briefing on Iran to senators 2 weeks ago at their request, outlining potential “Plan B” measures in the event that negotiations fail to save the 2015 nuclear agreement. Next month, when Biden is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia and Israel, the Iranian nuclear programme is anticipated to be the main topic of discussion.
Nasser Kanani, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, stated on Wednesday that the negotiations in Doha were conducted in a polished and professional manner, and that it was always the intention to have them over the course of two days.
However, the United States claimed that Iran was to blame for the impasse.
An inquiry for comment was not answered by Iran’s U.N. mission.
According to Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group think tank, neither side brought any significant new proposals to the Doha negotiations, and there was no indication that Iran had relaxed its negotiating demands, which included demanding that the United States remove Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps from its terrorist blacklist.
The sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard are, in the opinion of U.S. negotiators, outside the purview of the 2015 agreement, and Iran would have to make a similar concession in order to satisfy them.
Iran also insists that the US provide guarantees that it won’t leave the accord once again like Trump did. However, according to American authorities, it is impossible to make such a promise since a new American president may implement a different policy as a result of the elections.
The 2015 JCPOA, which was negotiated under Barack Obama’s presidency, placed stringent restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment activities in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump claimed that the agreement was too lenient and that it did not address Iran’s missile development or its funding of proxies around the Middle East when the U.S. pulled from it in 2018.
Since the United States left the agreement, Iran has gradually breached the limitations on its uranium enrichment activities, increasing stockpiles, operating sophisticated centrifuges, and obstructing complete access to the U.N. atomic watchdog body. According to specialists in arms control, Iran could now easily create uranium suitable for use in weapons without being discovered by U.N. inspectors.
In the event that the nuclear discussions fail, the U.S. is “prepared to turn to other options,” according to State secretary Antony Blinken last year. According to American sources, the administration would be prepared to strengthen sanctions against Iran in such cases. According to former U.S. officials and European diplomats who have spoken to NBC News, the U.S. is expected to impose additional sanctions against Tehran and work to more severely enforce current ones, with an emphasis on Beijing’s purchases of Iranian oil. Possible nuclear programme sabotage actions might potentially be on the agenda.