Iran has hit the hard line as talks about the nuclear deal continue

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TEHRAN, Iran (AP)-Iran did a tough job on Tuesday after just a day of re-talks in Vienna about its broken nuclear deal, suggesting that everything discussed in previous rounds of diplomacy could talk again.

Speaking to Iranian state television, Ali Bagheri, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, referred to everything discussed so far as just a “draft”. It remained unclear whether that represented an opening gamble by Iran’s new president or indicated serious problems for those hoping to restore the agreement in 2015 that Tehran saw as severely limiting its uranium enrichment in exchange for removing economic penalties.

The United States abandoned the agreement under President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran in 2018. Since the deal collapsed, Iran has now enriched small amounts of uranium to 60% purity – a brief step from the weapon level to 90 %. Iran is also spinning advanced centrifuges blocked by the agreement, and its uranium stockpile now far exceeds the limits of the agreement.

President Joe Biden said America was ready to re-enter the agreement, even as negotiations continue with U.S. officials not in the room as in previous rounds of talks since Washington’s withdrawal.

“Drafts are subject to negotiation. So nothing is agreed upon unless everything is agreed upon,” Bagheri said. “On that basis, all the discussions that took place in the six rounds were summary and subject to negotiations. This was also acknowledged by all parties at today’s meeting.”

It directly contradicts comments on Monday by the European Union diplomat leading the talks.

“The Iranian delegation represents a new administration in Tehran with newly understood political sensibilities, but they accept that the work done in the first six rounds is a good basis to advance our work, so it is pointless to come back, ”Enrique Mora said.

Another state TV segment saw Bagheri in Vienna saying Iran had sought “an American guarantee not to impose new sanctions” or not to re -impose previously removed sanctions.

Mohammed Eslami, the country’s civilian nuclear chief, reiterated that request in comments to Iran’s state -run IRNA news agency.

“The talks (in Vienna) are about the US returning to the agreement and they need to remove all sanctions and this should be practical and verifiable,” he said. He did not elaborate.

The US has imposed a series of sanctions on Iran since the 1979 capture of the US Embassy in Tehran. Some would eventually deal directly with the country’s nuclear program, while others were targeted in Tehran for what Washington describes as destabilizing actions in the Mideast. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, the U.S. lifted nuclear sanctions, which came back when Washington stopped the deal.

Iran keeps its atomic program peaceful. However, U.S. intelligence agencies and international inspectors say Iran had an organized program of nuclear weapons until 2003. Nonproliferation experts fear that any brinkmanship could push Tehran toward more extreme steps to try to force the West to remove sanctions.

Making things more difficult, United Nations nuclear inspectors remain unable to fully monitor Iran’s program after Tehran restricted their access. A trip to Iran last week by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, failed to make any progress on that issue.

Talks in Vienna aimed at re-imposing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program resumed on Monday after more than a five-month hiatus while hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi took office. Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has campaigned for sanctions. However, fellow hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy have long criticized the nuclear deal as giving too much to the West.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s top representative in the talks, tweeted on Tuesday that the resumption of negotiations was “quite successful.”

“Participants decided to proceed without delay the drafting process to the two working groups – on lifting sanctions and nuclear issues,” he wrote. “This work will begin immediately.”

Israel, Iran’s regional, nuclear-armed rival, maintains its own pressure amid the negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a video address delivered to the countries talking in Vienna, warned that he saw Iran trying to “end sanctions in exchange for almost nothing.”

“Iran deserves undue rewards, no bargain deals and no penalties in return for their brutality,” Bennett said in the video he later posted on Twitter. “I call on our allies around the world: Do not give in to Iran’s nuclear blackmail.”

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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