The Biden administration is conducting indirect bilateral talks with Iran that it hopes, at a minimum, will curtail Tehran’s nuclear program short of weapons development, end its proxy attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and bring home three longtime American prisoners in exchange for limited access to some of Iran’s billions of dollars frozen overseas.
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Begun several months ago, the talks are not a revival of negotiations over restoring the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, according to U.S., European and Middle Eastern officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive issue. Until President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, it eased U.S. sanctions on Iran in exchange for verifiable nuclear restrictions.
President Biden’s attempts to reinstate the deal ended last fall, after more than a year of sporadic negotiations, when Iran rejected what the United States and its European partners believed was a viable offer.
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Instead, the current discussions are an attempt to draw clear red lines and reverse what has been a steady escalation in Iranian aggression and tensions, exacerbated by Tehran’s crackdown on protests and weapons shipments to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Iran seeks ‘billions’ worth of Russian aircraft and weapons in exchange for drones, U.S. says
U.S. negotiators have warned that further attacks in Syria, the most recent of which took place in March, and continued high-level uranium enrichment that has come dangerously close to weapons grade levels will elicit a response — including military action — that neither side wants.
Administration officials have tried to downplay the scope of the diplomatic effort since reports that a new U.S.-Iran agreement was imminent first surfaced in Israeli media earlier this month. While not denying indirect contacts with Iran, U.S. officials have rejected any characterization of a pending “deal.”
White House and State Department officials declined to comment on the ongoing talks.
But the media reports have led to outspoken criticism by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some U.S. lawmakers.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) said in a Thursday letter to Biden that he was “deeply disturbed” that the administration was re-engaging with Tehran, “and that the results of these discussions have included the apparent greenlighting of sizable payments to Iran.”
Hours after McCaul released his letter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that “some of the reports that we’ve seen about an agreement about nuclear matters and detainees are simply not accurate or not true.”
The talks are part of the administration’s efforts to use quiet, high-level diplomacy to address problems in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, where China and Russia have expanded their presence as U.S. influence and interest have been perceived to be waning. Those efforts also include increased outreach to Saudi Arabia to nudge it toward relations with Israel and promote a settlement of the war in Yemen.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared last week to signal his approval for some sort of arrangement with the West, saying it was “not a problem,” as long as the country’s nuclear infrastructure was not “changed,” according to video footage of his remarks during a meeting with scientists and officials working in Iran’s nuclear industry.
Khamenei also said that Iran should maintain “cooperation and communication” with the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, while reiterating his longtime position that Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons, which he said were “contradictory to religion.”
A senior European diplomat long involved in talks with Iran said the administration’s European partners were not entirely sure of the contours of the current discussions, but noted that “it is clear that they are aware that if the Iranian nuclear program continues at full speed the crisis is unavoidable.”
Representatives from Britain, France and Germany, who were signatories to the original nuclear agreement along with Russia and China, met in the United Arab Emirates last week with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani.
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Begun several months ago, the talks are not a revival of negotiations over restoring the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, according to U.S., European and Middle Eastern officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive issue. Until President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, it eased U.S. sanctions on Iran in exchange for verifiable nuclear restrictions.
President Biden’s attempts to reinstate the deal ended last fall, after more than a year of sporadic negotiations, when Iran rejected what the United States and its European partners believed was a viable offer.
ADVERTISING
Instead, the current discussions are an attempt to draw clear red lines and reverse what has been a steady escalation in Iranian aggression and tensions, exacerbated by Tehran’s crackdown on protests and weapons shipments to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Iran seeks ‘billions’ worth of Russian aircraft and weapons in exchange for drones, U.S. says
U.S. negotiators have warned that further attacks in Syria, the most recent of which took place in March, and continued high-level uranium enrichment that has come dangerously close to weapons grade levels will elicit a response — including military action — that neither side wants.
Administration officials have tried to downplay the scope of the diplomatic effort since reports that a new U.S.-Iran agreement was imminent first surfaced in Israeli media earlier this month. While not denying indirect contacts with Iran, U.S. officials have rejected any characterization of a pending “deal.”
White House and State Department officials declined to comment on the ongoing talks.
But the media reports have led to outspoken criticism by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some U.S. lawmakers.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) said in a Thursday letter to Biden that he was “deeply disturbed” that the administration was re-engaging with Tehran, “and that the results of these discussions have included the apparent greenlighting of sizable payments to Iran.”
Hours after McCaul released his letter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that “some of the reports that we’ve seen about an agreement about nuclear matters and detainees are simply not accurate or not true.”
The talks are part of the administration’s efforts to use quiet, high-level diplomacy to address problems in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, where China and Russia have expanded their presence as U.S. influence and interest have been perceived to be waning. Those efforts also include increased outreach to Saudi Arabia to nudge it toward relations with Israel and promote a settlement of the war in Yemen.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared last week to signal his approval for some sort of arrangement with the West, saying it was “not a problem,” as long as the country’s nuclear infrastructure was not “changed,” according to video footage of his remarks during a meeting with scientists and officials working in Iran’s nuclear industry.
Khamenei also said that Iran should maintain “cooperation and communication” with the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, while reiterating his longtime position that Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons, which he said were “contradictory to religion.”
A senior European diplomat long involved in talks with Iran said the administration’s European partners were not entirely sure of the contours of the current discussions, but noted that “it is clear that they are aware that if the Iranian nuclear program continues at full speed the crisis is unavoidable.”
Representatives from Britain, France and Germany, who were signatories to the original nuclear agreement along with Russia and China, met in the United Arab Emirates last week with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani.
