The United States has said an increasingly skeptical return to the Iran nuclear deal is possible

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The New York Times reported on Saturday that US officials are increasingly pessimistic about the prospects of returning to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

The United States is indirectly involved in Iran’s talks with world powers to revive the deal that gave Iran some relief from international sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Officials expect the new government in Tehran, which is set to take office on Thursday, to take a tougher approach that could kill the chances of a deal.

“There is a real danger here that they are coming back with unrealistic demands about what they can achieve in these talks,” Robert Malley, the chief US negotiator told the newspaper.

Another major issue of concern in Washington, the report said, is that after months of ramping up uranium enrichment to near-weapon levels, Iranian scientists are gaining critical technical knowledge that makes the terms of the 2015 deal insufficient to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

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“At this point, we will have to reassess the way forward,” Malley said. “We hope it doesn’t get that far.”

In addition, while Iran insists that any US return to the deal be accompanied by a mechanism that prevents it from withdrawing again, US officials believe that it would be impossible, politically, to pass such a restriction through Congress, which is highly skeptical. From the agreement in the first place.

They said the ability to rescind sanctions on Iran if it fails to comply with aspects of the deal is critical to keeping it palatable to US lawmakers.

Television cameras in front of the ‘Grand Hotel Vienna’ as closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, June 20, 2021 (AP/Florian Schroetter)

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said nuclear talks with Iran “cannot go on indefinitely”, but Washington is “fully prepared” to continue negotiations.

The deal was torpedoed in 2018 by then-US President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew from the deal and imposed punitive sanctions.

Blinken said during a visit to Kuwait. The ball is still in Iran’s court.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s government has been in talks with major powers in Vienna since April to bring Washington back to the deal. But the talks have been frozen until President-elect Ibrahim Raisi is extradited.

The ultra-conservative main camp, which deeply mistrusts the United States, has repeatedly criticized Rouhani over the 2015 deal.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that experience showed that “trust in the West does not work,” referring to the United States’ withdrawal from the deal and its repercussions.

Raisi said his government would support talks that “guarantee national interests” but would not allow negotiations for the sake of negotiations.

FILE: Russian IAEA envoy Mikhail Ulyanov stands in front of the Vienna Grand Hotel where closed nuclear talks with Iran are taking place, in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, June 2, 2021. Photo/Lisa Lautner)

One of the main criticisms of the 2015 deal raised by Trump was its failure to address Iran’s ballistic missile program or its alleged interference in regional affairs.

But Tehran has always refused to include non-nuclear issues in the agreement, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Khamenei also criticized the United States for refusing to “guarantee this.” [it] He would not violate the agreement in the future” by unilaterally withdrawing, as Trump did in 2018.

Trump’s successor Joe Biden has indicated his willingness to return to the nuclear agreement and has entered into indirect negotiations with Iran along with formal talks with the remaining parties to the agreement, namely Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

Israel’s Kan news reported on Sunday that Jerusalem has warned US officials in recent days that Iran is closer than ever to acquiring nuclear weapons.

Ebrahim Raisi, who won Iran’s presidential election, waves his vote after casting his vote at a polling station in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2021 (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and other Israeli officials discussed the issue with their American counterparts recently, and issued an “unusual warning,” according to the report.

“Something has to happen in the negotiations with Iran. This ‘oblivion’ cannot be a time when Iran is rapidly progressing towards becoming a nuclear threshold country,” a senior diplomat told Kan.

Israel has long opposed the nuclear deal and Biden’s stated intentions to rejoin the treaty.

“We would like the world to understand that the Iranian regime is violent and intolerant,” Bennett said last month. It has chosen “Tehran’s executioner” as its president – a man who would like to starve his people for years in order to have a military nuclear program. This is a system that no one should have to deal with.”

Bennett added that Israel “will continue to consult with our friends, persuade us, debate, and exchange information and ideas out of mutual respect. But in the end, we will be responsible for our fate, no one but us.”

Agencies contributed to this report.

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