Iran-IAEA Talks Continue On Uranium Traces

The official familiar with the issue told Politico on Thursday that Washington is unwilling to include the removal of the IRGC from the US list of terrorist organizations since it falls beyond the contours of the original 2015 nuclear deal -- formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

“The US position has been that unless Iran agrees to take certain steps to assuage security concerns beyond the JCPOA, Washington will not lift the terror designation, which itself is beyond the JCPOA,” the unnamed source said.

He added that “the Biden administration is highly unlikely at this point to drop the designation in the context of the JCPOA talks” especially now that the administration is facing bipartisan political resistance at home and “given ongoing threats by the IRGC against [Americans]”.

The agreement that seemed imminent only two months ago hit a few hurdles along the way. First the Islamic Republic demanded that all sanctions – including over its missile and drone programs as well as human rights– be removed, then Russia - an original signatory of the JCPOA — demanded sanctions protections for any future business with Iran following its invasion of Ukraine. However, dropping the terrorist label of the IRGC seems like the tallest hurdle that has run the talks aground.

The International Atomic Energy Agency informed member states two weeks ago that Tehran had moved machines to a more secure setting from Karaj, west of Tehran, where its factory was sabotaged in June 2021 in an attack widely attributed to Israel.

Grossi told Associated Press Wednesday that the new plant, part of the larger site at Natanz where uranium is enriched, reflected the growth in Iran’s nuclear program. “The activity is not new, but the production lines, the production capacities, are being expanded,” he said.

Grossi said Wednesday that “political circumstance” should be overcome for effective UN monitoring of the Iran nuclear program to resume, stressing the agency’s work both in inspecting Iranian atomic facilities and in pursuing answers over past nuclear activities.

While the IAEA is not directly involved in Vienna talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Grossi has made clear the agency’s knowledge and supervision of Iran’s nuclear activities was undermined by the United States in 2018 leaving the JCPOA and Iran’s 2019 decision to reduce IAEA access and break JCPOA nuclear limits.

Tehran is due to satisfy the agency’s concerns by June 21 over work carried out before 2003 in sites where the IAEA later detected traces of uranium.

According to a report in the Washington Free Beacon, a group of Republican Congressmen on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees wrote a letter Wednesday calling on the United States administration to reveal details of talks in Vienna, which have been paused since March.

"With uncertainty surrounding the status of the negotiation, the American people have a right to know what their diplomats agreed to in Vienna, what alternatives your administration is considering,” they wrote.

The Republicans also demanded the administration reveal how it intended to deal with Iran over other matters, “including its increasingly dangerous missile and drone programs and taking American hostages."

The pause in talks has given ample opportunity for JCPOA critics in both Tehran and Washington. The Republicans have highlighted the prospect that lifting US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran accepting JCPOA limits on its nuclear program would see Tehran repatriate billions of dollars currently frozen by creditors wary of punitive US action.

The Republicans’ letter urged public hearings. "To date only closed-door classified briefings have been provided to Congress,” they wrote. “This is a start, but it is not enough. Special Envoy Robert Malley works for the American people, and he should answer to them.”

In an interview Wednesday with Associated Press (AP), Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, stressed the agency’s continuing work both in inspecting Iranian atomic facilities and in pursuing answers over its past nuclear work.

“There are certain things they need to explain that are not very clear to us,” Grossi said, referring to work carried out by Iran before 2003 in sites where the IAEA later detected traces of uranium. Tehran is due to satisfy the agency’s concerns by June 21.

Grossi referred to Iran’s recent transfer of nuclear manufacturing from Karaj, west of Tehran, to Natanz as a shift to “a place where they feel they are more protected.” The Karaj workshop, which made parts for centrifuges used to enrich uranium, was sabotaged in June 2021 in an attack widely attributed to Israel.

Grossi noted that the new manufacturing plant at Natanz also reflected growth in Iran’s nuclear program. “The activity is not new, but the production lines, the production capacities, are being expanded,” he said.

While the IAEA is not directly involved in Vienna talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Grossi has made clear the agreement’s demise − following United States 2018 withdrawal and Iran’s 2019 decision to reduce IAEA access and break JCPOA limits − has undermined the agency’s monitoring role.

Grossi told AP that the real value of a temporary access arrangement in place since February 2021 would be realized only if the JCPOA were back in place, when the agency would be able to retrieve all data in its monitoring equipment, including cameras, in Iran’s nuclear sites.

‘Not easy'

"Well, you know, that access to information is part of an understanding I have with Iran that has it, that once the JCPOA is back in application, then they are going to be releasing this material to us,” Grossi said. “So, if JCPOA negotiations were to fail and I don't want to imagine that, but it's a possibility. Then I have to sit down with my Iranian counterparts and look into this again."

The IAEA chief, whose time since taking office December 2019, has been dominated by Iran, conceded that “putting every effort into making this process a success…is not easy.”

Among the issues stalling year-long Vienna talks to revive the JCPOA is reportedly the US 2019 listing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a ‘foreign terrorist organization.’

“There is a political circumstance surrounding this whole thing,” he noted. “And I do not exclude that Iran and others are, of course, looking peripherally at what is going on elsewhere and measuring their reactions to this. My job is to focus on this, to insist, to be very inquisitive in our questioning, to try to get to a clarification. And I'm sure that this will help if we get there. If we don't, there could be further complications. So, I hope this is incentive enough for people to cooperate."

The open letter published on Tuesday is led by the International Crisis Group, which is a Brussels-based transnational non-profit think tank consisting of policymakers and academics that describes itself as "working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world".

The letter, signed by members of the European Leadership Network, board members of the group and council members from the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that the parties to the Vienna nuclear talks are now within touching distance of reinstating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Expressing their growing concern over the fate of the talks, they said a period of stasis in the talks threatens to undo the progress made in recent months “toward reinstating a non-proliferation achievement that is crucial for international peace and security.”

“At a time when transatlantic cooperation has become all the more critical to respond against Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, for U.S. and European leaders to let slip the opportunity to defuse a nuclear crisis in the Middle East would be a grave mistake”, read the letter.

The US and the Islamic Republic have held more than one year of talks to revive the JCPOA, but the diplomatic process is at a standstill since March. Iran is demanding the removal of its Revolutionary Guard from the US list of terrorist organizations, something the administration has so far not accepted.