Iran said Wednesday that it’s still open to talks to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, but such negotiations are unlikely as the US says it is preparing more sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the window for reviving the JCPOA is still open but warned it wouldn’t be open forever.
“If the opposite parties do not stop hypocrisy, especially the Americans, and the Westerners do not act realistically, it is not certain that the window that is open today will remain open tomorrow,” Amir-Abdollahian said while in Oman.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the US was looking to curtail the production of Iranian drones over Tehran’s support for Russia. Moscow is said to be using Iranian kamikaze drones to bomb Ukrainian infrastructure, although Tehran insists it hasn’t provided Russia with drones since the invasion of Ukraine. But there’s no doubt Russia and Iran are increasing cooperation as they face similar pressure from the West.
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson acknowledged in comments to the Times that the US was looking to use sanctions against Iran’s drone program. “We are looking at ways to target Iranian UAV production through sanctions, export controls, and talking to private companies whose parts have been used in the production,” she said.
The US has also discussed the issue with Israel, signaling the Biden administration may be considering covert action against Iran’s drone production as Israel has a history of sabotage operations inside the Islamic Republic.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan last week held a video meeting with high-level Israeli officials. According to the White House, they discussed “Iran’s growing military relationship with Russia, including the transfer of weapons the Kremlin is deploying against Ukraine.”
Another sign that negotiations between the US and Iran won’t happen anytime soon is the fact that President Biden said the JCPOA is “dead” in a video that surfaced last week. Since JCPOA talks fell apart in September, the US has escalated sanctions against Iran and expressed support for protesters inside the country.
We need to be more balanced in our approach or nothing will ever be accomplished. We must allow for cultural differences and even language differences…Too many sanctions freezes everything in their tracks…
Is there perhaps too much arrogance on our part because of our sense of supremacy?…
A sound, solid and fair nuclear deal would go along way in promoting better relationships between our countries…
Say that to the Future Human Race after the end of this world at the 25,000 year cycle which is near…!
Selling drones to Russia to kill civilians was not the smartest thing Iran could do. They should have stayed neutral not give the US another reason to attack Iran.
Civilians are killed in wars. That’s one of the many very good reasons not to provoke wars. Tell your friends and politicians.
Iran has survived US (and Israeli) hostility for a very long time. And previously it survived decades of brutality by the shah and his vicious regime, a regime that the US put in power in a coup.
I very much doubt that you have the slightest clue what the smartest thing Tehran could do might be, or any other thing for that matter.
I know civilians are killed in wars and you support Russia killing of them. I get that. But I also get is that you are one these guys who thinks he is the smartest person in the room and quickly insults anyone who has a different idea than his. You not that smart.
No, Kenneth, I try to reserve my insults for responses to comments demonstrating defiant ignorance, willful blindness, unhinged hatred, and/or dangerous recklessness.
Well, these things are relative, of course.
“you are one these guys who thinks he is the smartest person in the room”
oh the irony. does it escape you? or is it just part of your M.O.
Iran does a very good job of slaughtering its own people, especially if they they are dissidents. They could stop using their resources for war and feed their own citizens.
uncle sam could also stop using their resources for war and feed their own citizens. even better, all of the money from biden’s “build back better” bill could be used to actually build back better. but that doesn’t seem to be on the agenda either.
Right, so by this logic every country that had people killed by American weapons should now attack us. Well, that’s only MOST of the countries in the world….
I never claimed is is logical. But I do claim that if US attacks Iran, this selling of drones will be one reasons listed. So why give the US another reason?
If the US attacks Iran, the reason will be the Zionist lobby. Getting the US into a war with Iran has been the top foreign policy goal of all of Israel’s main parties since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
Remember Wesley Clark’s list of seven anti-Zionist countries the US targeted for regime change. The last one was Iran.
I do not think he is able to understand the logic here. His world view is thus that it should be rule-based. The rule being: America makes the rules.
Wow, where was your fake outrage when Israeli drones sold to Azerbaijan to kill ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh? Or US selling chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein when he used it on Iranian and Kurds? Or Arms sold to Saudi Arabia against the population of Yaman?
Please show me proof that US sold chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein.
The US did not sell chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein.
What the US sold to Saddam Hussein were the tools to make his own chemical weapons. Specifically, under the rubric of “agricultural aid,” the equipment to manufacture pesticides. That’s a “dual-use” technology. Nerve agents are essentially concentrated pesticide.
I came back from Desert Storm highly sensitized to pesticides, after an incident in which Czech chemical monitors said (but the US government continues to deny) sarin was released in my vicinity. If I enter a recently fumigated room, or someone sprays e.g. Raid in my immediate area, I immediately go into symptoms of nerve agent exposure. My pupils dilate, I break into a sweat and my mucuous membranes go into overdrive, my head starts pounding, my chest gets tight, and I have difficulty breathing.
Indirectly helping other countries in time of war should be acceptable to the US. And if the US thinks it’s alright to take action against Iran because they are indirectly helping Russia against Ukraine, shouldn’t the US expect Russia to go after those who are indirectly helping Ukraine against Russia? Or is that just me being anti-US?
Oh but wait, I forgot something… What pleases Israel?… Too much pleasing Israel freezes everything in the tracks… US Diplomacy is farcical….