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Talks to Restore a Nuclear Deal Are Going Badly

(Economist-UK) President Joe Biden has been trying to revive the nuclear agreement with Iran that Barack Obama negotiated in 2015. But Iran is not making it easy. It has refused to speak directly to American officials in the six rounds of talks in Vienna that ended in June (it negotiated instead with European, Russian and Chinese intermediaries). It has dragged its feet since - citing the presidential election in June that brought to power Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner. As though taunting America, Iran has stepped up its nuclear program. On Oct. 9, Iran said it had produced more than 120kg of 20% enriched uranium, approaching the 170kg required to make a bomb after further enrichment. It is already spinning up a growing stock of 60% enriched fissile material, a hair's breadth away from bomb-grade stuff. Iran seems determined at least to develop the wherewithal to make nuclear bombs at short notice. The JCPOA was hardly a permanent solution to the problem. It sought to postpone the reckoning. It allowed Iran to continue enrichment and experiment with more sophisticated centrifuges. The Biden administration at first sought an agreement that would be "longer and stronger" than the original JCPOA. Iran has demanded that America should move first by lifting sanctions and that it should guarantee that the deal will not be repudiated again.
2021-10-11 00:00:00
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