Finalizing the Iran nuclear deal is still a priority, but for the past several weeks concerns about conflicts with US sanctions on Russia have mounted, and may derail the deal.
The Biden Administration is saying that the US absolutely will not negotiate with Russia on the specifics of sanctions against Russia, even to the extent that they contradict US sanctions relief for Iran.
That’s been a concern for weeks, with the US arguing that the Iran and Russia issues wouldn’t overlap, and Russia wanting a guarantee that this would be the case, particularly if they’re expected to process Iranian uranium.
Furthermore, the US is demanding that Russia unconditionally abandon its calls to make sure there are no sanctions conflicts, saying that if they don’t back off within a week, the US will scrap the talks and pursue a separate US-Iran deal without Russia.
That might not be the worst thing to happen, assuming it happened, but it’s not clear how assurances for nuclear technology assistance, and uranium processing, might happen without Russian involvement.
The bigger danger would be for the US to decide they need unilateral deals to spite Russia, then never finish a deal with Iran at all.
“but it’s not clear how assurances for nuclear technology assistance, and
uranium processing, might happen without Russian involvement.”
As Richard Medhurst has pointed out, if Iran can’t send it fuel to be processed in Russia. then there is no JCPOA. If the US sanctions Iran for dealing with Russia, there is no JCPOA.
In other words, there is no JCPOA – just as I’ve been saying all along.
If there is no JCPOA, then an attack on Iran pushed by Israel will be on the table again.
The question is what kind of excuse will the US invent after all the feigned moral outrage displayed on Russia’s actions.
This could have been cleared on Bye-Done’s first day in office rather than waiting until now.
Of course his Israeli handlers forbade it.
US won’t negotiate with Russia on anything because we just don’t do that anymore.