Earlier, US officials expressed some optimism about the latest efforts to revive the nuclear deal.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Iran had “a step back” in his latest response to a proposal to revive the nuclear deal, calling it “unlikely” to revive the deal anytime soon, CNN reported.
“What we've seen over the last week or so so much in Iran's response to the proposal put forward by the EU is clearly a step backwards and makes the prospects of reaching an agreement in the near future, I would say, unlikely,” said Blinken.
The United States and Iran have exchanged responses to the EU's proposal to restore the nuclear deal. Iran responded in mid-August, the US about a week later.
Earlier this month, Iran sent its response, which a State Department official called “unconstructive.”
Iran has reopened an investigation into undeclared traces of uranium found at Iranian facilities, according to a senior US administration official. Iranian officials have repeatedly said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation must be closed before they can return to the deal. However, a separate senior US administration official suggested last month that Iran had accepted the EU proposal, which Borrell called the “final text”, without demanding an investigation.
Blinken said he could not offer a time frame for when he believed the nuclear deal could be struck again, saying Iran was “unwilling or unable to do what is necessary to achieve a deal.”
“They continue to try to introduce extraneous issues into the negotiations that make a deal less likely. But what we saw last week is certainly a step back from the likelihood of any deal in the near term,” Blinken said.
U.S. officials previously expressed some optimism about the latest effort to revive the nuclear deal, but hopes for a breakthrough continue to fade.
Read also: Iran demands stronger guarantees from the US to restore the nuclear deal
The Iran nuclear deal was reached in 2015 between Iran and the US, Great Britain, Russia, France, China, Germany, the EU. Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities and admit international inspectors in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions that have been devastating to the country.
In 2018, the United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement and reinstated unilateral sanctions against Iran. Other participants in the agreement were skeptical. Iran has announced a gradual reduction of its obligations.
President Joe Biden's administration is showing readiness to renew the nuclear deal with Tehran. In October 2021, Iran agreed to resume negotiations on the nuclear deal. In June 2022, negotiations partially resumed – between Iran and the European Union.
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Read more about the prospects of signing a new nuclear agreement in Mykola Zamikula's article “Iran on the verge of creating a nuclear bomb”.
