Washington feels that the negotiations to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are worth delaying in order to better cooperate with Israel, a source with knowledge of the US President Joe Biden’s administration's side of the talks said on Wednesday.
The new government plans to send experts to Washington to discuss ways to better enforce the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action's limitations on Iran's nuclear program, including which sanctions to keep intact as some will be removed if the US returns to the deal.
This is a sharp departure from former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy, as he blocked any dialogue about the Biden administration’s plan to reenter the JCPOA.
Middle East Program Director at the Kelman Institute for Conflict Transformation Ofer Zalzberg said that “the sense in Washington is that post-Netanyahu Israel…wants to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon through a strong agreement.
“The US is keen on cooperative relations with Israel on this, though it would mean taking time for dialogue with Israel's new government - and hence a delay in negotiations with Iran - and likely placing more demanding positions to Iran,” Zalzberg said.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid plans to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome on Sunday, a week after the sixth round of indirect talks between the US and Iran on returning to the 2015 nuclear deal came to a close on Sunday.
The new Israeli government is conducting a policy review on how it plans to handle the Iran nuclear threat and the likelihood that the US will return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is called.
One question Lapid is expected to ask Blinken is what he means by seeking a “longer and stronger” JCPOA, as Blinken has repeatedly said.
The trip will be Lapid’s first as foreign minister and the first meeting between members of the new Israeli government and US President Joe Biden's cabinet, exactly two weeks after the new government was sworn in. Blinken and Lapid have spoken twice since then, and sought to meet in person as soon as possible. The meeting will take place in Rome, because Lapid does not want to upstage Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and allow him to have the first trip to Washington.
Iran is one of a number of issues Lapid and Blinken plan to discuss. Another is the US plan to open a consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi was in Washington on Wednesday, where he met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior officials to discuss regional challenges, foremost of which was Iranian aggression and its nuclear ambitions, and presented ways to block Iran's nuclear capabilities, the IDF Spokesperson said.
Kohavi was also expected to meet with CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
Talk in Tehran that the US is close to lifting oil sanctions is an exaggeration, the source with knowledge of the American side of the talks said.
The Iranian remarks, by outgoing President Hassan Rouhani's chief of staff, echoed previous assertions by officials in Rouhani's pragmatist camp that Washington is prepared to make major concessions at the talks, under way since April in Vienna.
"An agreement has been reached to remove all insurance, oil and shipping sanctions that were imposed by [former US President Donald] Trump," Rouhani's chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
Earlier this week, Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian judiciary chief who sanctioned by the US for human rights violations in light of his involvement in thousands of executions, won the Iranian presidential election. Raisi is due to replace Rouhani in August.
Vaezi said the United States had agreed to take some senior Iranian figures off a blacklist.
"About 1,040 Trump-era sanctions will be lifted under the agreement. It was also agreed to lift some sanctions on individuals and members of the supreme leader's inner circle."
Like other Western and Iranian negotiators who have said the talks remain a long way from conclusion, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday that Tehran and the powers still had to overcome significant hurdles.
"We are making progress but there are still some nuts to crack," Maas told a joint news conference with Blinken. Maas said a deal was possible even after the election of Raisi, an implacable critic of the West.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday there was still “a fair distance to travel”, including on sanctions and on the nuclear commitments that Iran has to make to salvage the tattered deal.A State Department spokesperson said in response to Vaezi's remarks that "the precise nature and sequence of the sanctions-related steps that the United States would need to take to achieve a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA objective is a subject of the talks. As we have said, this has been a long road. We’ve continued to make progress toward defining the contours of an understanding of how we can return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA. During negotiations of this complexity, negotiators try to draft text that capture the main issues, but again, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."
Some Iranian officials have suggested Tehran may prefer an agreement before Raisi takes office to give the new president a clean slate and avoid blame if problems subsequently arise.
The Biden administration aims to restore the deal, but the sides disagree on which steps need to be taken and when to defuse mutual suspicions and ensure full compliance.
Iran agreed in 2015 to curbs on its uranium enrichment program, a possible pathway to nuclear weapons, in return for the lifting of international sanctions. The limitations on the nuclear program will expire in 2030 under the original agreement.
Trump abandoned the agreement three years later, calling it flawed to Iran's advantage, and reimposed harsh sanctions that hammered Iran's economy.
Tehran responded by violating enrichment limits and starting to develop uranium metal.
IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi was in Washington on Wednesday, where he met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior officials to discuss regional challenges, foremost of which was Iranian aggression and its nuclear ambitions, and presented ways to block Iran's nuclear capabilities, the IDF Spokesperson said.
Kohavi was also expected to meet with CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
The talk in Tehran that the US is close to lifting oil sanctions is an exaggeration, the source with knowledge of the American side of the talks said.