The United States on Thursday said a new Iranian response to reviving a landmark nuclear deal was “not constructive,” a day after European mediators were hopeful they were finally crossing the finish line.
It’s the latest in a back-and-forth between opponents over the European Union, which broke an impasse in August after a year and a half of sluggish diplomacy.
The European Union on August 8 presented a so-called final text restoring the 2015 nuclear deal that was scrapped by former US President Donald Trump.
Iran proposed changes that were widely accepted by Europeans, to which the United States responded through the mediators.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said earlier Thursday that Tehran had sent another reply in response to the US position.
“We can confirm that we received Iran’s response through the EU,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in Washington late Thursday.
“We are studying it and will respond via the EU, but unfortunately it is not constructive.”
Kanani, quoted by the official IRNA news agency, said Iran was taking a “constructive approach” in its diplomacy.
– sticking points remain –
The United States has declined to discuss details publicly, but disputes include Iran’s insistence that the UN nuclear guard complete an investigation into three undeclared sites suspected of being nuclear-powered ahead of the 2015 nuclear deal will.
If President Joe Biden returns to the deal, the United States would ease sanctions if Iran accepts severe restrictions on its nuclear program.
The United States would end Trump’s unilateral US efforts to prevent other nations from buying Iranian oil.
Iran would then be able to sell potentially more than a million barrels of oil per day within a few months, further depressing global crude prices, which have skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden took office with a goal of restoring the deal despite fierce opposition from both US ally Israel and lawmakers from Trump’s Republican Party.
But Iran pressed hard at the Vienna talks, even refusing to see US envoy Rob Malley in person and forcing EU envoys to shuttle back and forth between hotels.
At a turning point, the United States said in August that Iran had cleared a key stumbling block — that Biden had reversed Trump’s blacklist of the elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group.
Consulting firm Eurasia Group said in an analysis after Washington submitted its response that the chances of the deal reviving this year were 45 percent as developments mostly related to public news.
“There’s less here than you think,” they said.
However, Israel seems to be seeing a dynamic. Prime Minister Yair Lapid has stepped up calls for the West to end the deal and had extensive phone calls with Biden on Wednesday.
Israel says the deal would offer its nemesis dangerous new funding and has waged a shadowy campaign inside Iran to sabotage its nuclear program.
The Biden administration argues that Trump’s withdrawal has done little other than speed Iran’s nuclear work.
Iran denies it is aiming for a nuclear weapon but has reversed its commitments under the 2015 deal, with US intelligence saying it is now closer to making a nuclear bomb if it chooses to pursue one.
