PARIS, June 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that it will be “very difficult” for the United States to return to the nuclear deal with Iran if ongoing negotiations drag on.
“There will come a time when, yes, it will be very difficult to return to the parameters established by the agreement,” the head of US diplomacy said during a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves le Drian.
On Wednesday, France asked Tehran to make “final decisions” to save the nuclear deal, signed in 2015 and from which the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018, under the presidency of Donald Trump, alleging failure to fulfil its commitments.
“We hope that the Iranian authorities will take the final decisions, undoubtedly difficult, that will allow the negotiations to be concluded,” said le Drian, referring to the talks taking place in Vienna.
In these negotiations, the countries that still remain in the agreement — the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia — seek to mediate a solution that allows the return of the United States to the treaty, but Tehran has insisted that the Americans first abdicate the sanctions that have been re-imposed since 2018.
Upon arriving at the White House in January, President Joe Biden announced his intention to return to the agreement and negotiations resumed in April in the Austrian capital between the signatory countries to set the framework for such a return, with the latest round of talks ending on Sunday.
In Paris, Blinken — who travelled this week to Germany, France, the Vatican and Italy, where he will attend the G20 ministerial summit — said there are still “relevant differences with Iran” for the fulfilment of the 2015 nuclear agreement implying that a return of the US is, for the time being, out of the question, despite not wanting to close the door on diplomatic talks.
On Thursday, a US State Department official said the US “would not have accepted a seventh round of talks if it didn’t believe a deal was possible.”
But Joe Biden also made it clear that the United States will not return to the agreement “if Iran continues to have increasingly sophisticated nuclear plants” or “if it tries to move forward on other parts of its nuclear program that were vetoed by the agreement”.
Blinken, meanwhile, clarified that “the nuclear-armed Iran, which it will have very soon, is more dangerous, because it could act to destabilize the region.”
So today in Paris, the head of French diplomacy insisted that “it is time for Iran to take strong and courageous decisions”, adding that he believes that “there is good will to conclude an agreement”.
