Road administration restores exemption from sanctions on Iran | Politics News

The Biden administration has reconsidered the sanctions exemption in Iran, a senior State Department official said, as indirect talks between Washington and Tehran entered the final phase of a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

With the exception of the Trump administration, which was suspended in May 2020, Russian, Chinese, and European companies have had the opportunity to work indefinitely in Iran’s nuclear sites.

The waiver was key to enabling technical discussions that were key negotiations A return to the so-called Integrated Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA) agreement was back, a State Department official said.

Ryan Costello, political director of the National Council of America (NIAC) in Iran, a group in favor of restoring the agreement in Washington, DC, said he refused to allow other countries to comply with the JCPOA to help Iran convert its nuclear facilities. .

This includes Iran’s heavy water research reactor, especially according to Costello.

“I don’t mean that it’s a sign [negotiations are] Near the end, but I think it is a sign that progress is being made, that the US wants to show that it is working in good faith to restore the agreement and overcome some of Iran’s doubts, “he told Al Jazeera.

It has been the US and Iran indirectly traded in Vienna to revive the agreement, Iran reduced its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against its economy.

Former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Washington deal in 2018 and launched a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, which responded by pushing his nuclear program beyond the limits set by the JCPOA.

U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to reinstate the deal, but several talks in the Austrian capital have so far failed to find a way to return to the deal.

Biden and his top aides also warned that the possibility of saving the deal is closing the window, as Iran gains irreversible nuclear knowledge.

Earlier this week, a senior State Department official told reporters that negotiations were entering a break-up phase, with only “a few weeks” left before the deal could be reinstated.

“We are at the very end, as we have said for a long time, because this cannot last forever as a result of Iran’s nuclear progress,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This is not a prediction. It’s not a threat. It’s not an artificial term. “

The U.S. government says preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is one of its foreign policy priorities, but Tehran has denied that it is seeking nuclear weapons.

A State Department official said Friday that the recovery of the exemption was not a sign of a return to the Washington agreement, however.

“Without this exemption from penalties, no specific technical discussions can be held with third parties regarding the provisions of the warehouses and other activities of reproductive value,” the official said.

Exceptions included the conversion of the Iran Arak heavy water research reactor, the supply of enriched uranium to the Tehran research reactor, and the transfer of spent and scrap fuel from scrap reactors abroad.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suspended his resignation in May 2020, almost two years after Trump left the deal.

Barbara Slavin, an Iranian expert on the Atlantic Council, said the resumption of the refusal was a positive step.

“JCPOA is a prerequisite for recovery, so it’s a good sign that this can be achieved,” he told AFP. “These punishments were one of the most foolish and contradictory imposed by the former administration,” he added.