Biden Will Discuss Iran With Allies To Advance Unified Position
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden will discuss the Iran nuclear talks with European allies on the sidelines of upcoming summits.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden will discuss the Iran nuclear talks with European allies on the sidelines of upcoming summits.
Sullivan speaking from the White House was referring to the G20 Summit this weekend and the global climate summit next week.
He added that Biden looks forward to discussing the Iran nuclear issue especially with the E3, the United Kingdom, France and Germany who are participants in the 2015 Iran deal (JCPOA), so that the US and Europe can present "a united front after the four years of division on the Iran policy in the last administration."
Asked about at what stage the Administration would consider that Iran has passed the point of no return in its nuclear program, Sullivan avoided a specific answer.
"I'm not fixing a date on that. Obviously, we closely monitor the progress in Iran's nuclear program. We are alarmed and concerned by the steps that they have taken since they left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," Sullivan said.
He added, “Within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, there were constraints on that program that were significant and substantial. We had a lid on that program. Now we do not because we don't have that deal. So, our first and highest priority is to get back to the table and get back to a deal that does, in fact, place a lid on Iran's nuclear program."
The national security adviser said the US and its partners still want a diplomatic solution to bring both America and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal that former President Donald Trump withdrew from.
Iran suspended its participation in multilateral negotiations in Vienna in June and has not responded to calls to return to the talks. Meanwhile it continues enriching uranium and getting closer to a point where it can have enough fissile material for a nuclear device.
Sullivan underscored the window for diplomacy "is not unlimited...and that we of course, retain all other options to be able to deal with this program as necessary."
“And we will be sending clear messages to the Iranians, as we have been doing over the course of the past few months, that this window is not unlimited, that we do need to see a return to diplomacy and progress at the diplomatic table, and that we of course, retain all other options to be able to deal with this program as necessary.”
Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency last week it had temporarily fed uranium enriched to up to 20% into extra “single machine and intermediate cascades...without any collection of products”, the IAEA said in a statement, adding it later verified Iran had begun feeding just one IR-6 centrifuge but the product was not being collected.
The move is likely to help Iran refine its knowledge of the enrichment process - something Western powers generally condemn because it is irreversible - but since this time the product is not being collected it will not immediately accelerate Iran's production of uranium enriched to close to weapons-grade.
Iran suspended multilateral talks in Vienna in June aimed at restoring the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear agreement that curbed its nuclear activities. In the meantime, it continues its uranium enrichment, stockpiling 20-percent and 60-percent enriched fissile material.
The JCPOA put a 3.65-percent enrichment cap on Iran. The 20-percent enrichment level is already high and the 60-percent degree of purity has no civilian use.
The latest move has, however, prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency to "increase the frequency and intensity of its safeguards activities" at the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz, the IAEA said in a report seen by Reuters. As of around 90% uranium is considered weapons-grade.
The IAEA said in a statement outlining the report that Iran informed it last week of changes to the setup of centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, at the plant - Iran would feed uranium enriched to up to 20% into limited numbers of extra centrifuges without collecting the product.
"On 25 October 2021, the Agency verified that Iran began feeding (uranium hexafluoride gas) enriched up to 20% U-235 into a single IR-6 centrifuge in R&D line 2 at PFEP and that the resulting product and tails streams were being re-combined," the IAEA report said, meaning that after separating the enriched product it was mixed with the centrifuge's waste and not kept.
Iran had said it planned to also feed uranium enriched to up to 20% into other single centrifuges or small- to medium-sized cascades, or clusters, of machines on the same line, but those were not being fed at the time, the IAEA said.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions. About a year later, Iran started violating some of the deal's limits on uranium enrichment.
President Joe Biden announced before his election that he intended to restore the JCPOA and in April the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China began talks in Vienna.
Iran has also curtailed IAEA’s monitoring activities since February, demanding that US lift sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
Report by Reuters
