(Wall Street Journal) Laurence Norman - Following talks in Brussels with the EU coordinators of the Vienna negotiations on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani, said Wednesday, "We agree to start negotiations before the end of November." This would end a five-month hiatus in talks that has enabled Tehran to press ahead with its nuclear program. However, U.S and European officials remain cautious about the prospects of reaching agreement with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's government. To revive the deal, Iran would need to eliminate much of its growing stockpile of nuclear fuel and halt the work it is doing on key technologies that could be used to produce nuclear weapons. At the heart of Western concerns is that Iran has gained enough nuclear know-how that it may soon be impossible to re-create the centerpiece of the 2015 nuclear deal: keeping Iran at least 12 months away from producing enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon. Iranian officials have in recent days demanded complete sanctions lifting - including human-rights and other non-nuclear sanctions the U.S. has said aren't up for negotiation. They are also demanding a guarantee the U.S. won't quit the agreement again - a pledge U.S. officials say no administration could make.
2021-10-28 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive