SULAIMANI (ESTA) — France’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that the opportunity to reach a deal on reviving the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers was closing and called on all sides to take a responsible approach to reach an agreement.
“We are very close to an agreement, but the window of opportunity is closing,” Foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters in a daily briefing, according to Reuters.
“We are concerned about the risks that additional delays pose to the possibility of concluding. Together with our E3 partners, we call on all parties to take a responsible approach and make the decisions necessary to conclude this agreement.”
A week ago preparations were being made in Vienna for a weekend meeting to conclude an agreement bringing Iran back into compliance with the deal’s restrictions on its rapidly advancing nuclear activities and bringing the United States back into the accord it left in 2018 by re-imposing sanctions on Tehran.
Then last Saturday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov unexpectedly demanded sweeping guarantees that Russian trade with Iran would not be affected by sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine — a demand Western powers say is unacceptable and Washington has insisted it will not entertain.
Russia’s demand initially angered Tehran and appeared to help it and Washington move towards agreement on the few remaining thorny issues, diplomats said, but a sudden volley of public comments by Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday suggested the wind had turned.
“US approach to Iran’s principled demands, coupled with its unreasonable offers and unjustified pressure to hastily reach an agreement, show that US isn’t interested in a strong deal that would satisfy both parties,” Khamenei’s top security official Ali Shamkhani said in English on Twitter on Thursday morning.
“Absent US political decision, the talks get knottier by the hour,” said Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Shamkhani did not specify what the demands were but that there were any at all contradicted what four Western officials had said – that a final draft text had been agreed which only needed minor adjustments with the exception of the open question about Russia’s sweeping demand for guarantees.
