(Washington) The United States has taken a seemingly technical step on Iran’s civilian atomic program, but which appears to be a notable gesture in the direction of Tehran as negotiations to save the Iran nuclear agreement enter in the final straight.
Posted at 6:11 p.m.
Without an official announcement, Joe Biden’s government reinstated key waivers that shielded foreign countries and companies involved in non-military nuclear projects from the threat of US sanctions, but which had been rolled back under President Donald Trump.
“We have decided to reinstate a sanctions waiver to allow external participation” to ensure “non-proliferation”, due to “growing concerns” created by the continued development of Iranian nuclear activities, a senior US official confirmed on Friday. interviewed by AFP.
This decision must also make it possible to “facilitate” “technical discussions” which are “necessary in the last weeks of the talks”, he added, establishing a direct link with the negotiations which must resume in the coming days with Tehran and the other great powers.
“The waiver itself would be essential to ensure Iran’s prompt compliance with its nuclear commitments” in the event of a compromise in Vienna, where the negotiations are being held, he added.
But even without an agreement in the Austrian capital, “these technical discussions will still contribute to fulfilling our non-proliferation objectives”, he assured.
Not a “concession”
However, Washington ensures that it “is not a concession to Iran” nor a “signal indicating that we are on the verge of reaching an agreement” to save the 2015 agreement supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring the atomic bomb.
Donald Trump, who in 2018 withdrew the United States from this agreement and restored most of the American economic sanctions against Tehran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign, had first regularly extended these exemptions by invoking, he too, the need to “reduce the risks of proliferation”.
But in May 2020, when he failed to bend the Islamic Republic to obtain a “better deal”, his government ended up removing these derogations as well.
The Europeans had “deeply regretted” this decision, believing that it removed “guarantees” on the “peaceful” nature of the Iranian program.
The derogations concern in particular the Tehran reactor intended for research, as well as the heavy water reactor of Arak, modified under the control of the international community in such a way as to make it impossible to produce plutonium for military use.
In response to US sanctions since 2018, the Iranian authorities have gradually freed themselves from the restrictions imposed by the agreement on their nuclear activities, so much so that they are now, according to experts, only a few weeks away from have enough fissile material to make an atomic weapon.
President Biden wants to revert to the 2015 deal to ensure that Iranian activities remain strictly civil and peaceful, provided Iran also returns to its commitments.
According to Barbara Slavin, Iran specialist at the Atlantic Council think tank, the return of waivers is “a precondition for restoring the agreement” and “therefore a good signal that it is possible to achieve it”.
The negotiations underway since last spring in Vienna aim to find a compromise on this mutual return. The talks, coordinated by the European Union, are taking place between the Iranians and the other signatory countries to the agreement (Germany, China, France, the United Kingdom and Russia), with only indirect participation from the Americans.
After months of deadlock, progress has been made in recent weeks.
Discussions were suspended last week and are due to resume in the coming days. It is time for “political decisions” to reach an agreement, several negotiators have warned, stressing that there are only a handful of weeks left to avoid a failure of diplomacy and the recourse by Washington or Israel to d other options, including military, which could cause tensions to escalate.