US Says No Plan For Another Round Of Talks With Iran, 'For Now'

“The European Union – in its role as coordinator – wanted to try one more effort, at least one more effort, and so they invited both delegations (from Iran and US) to meet them in Doha in the hope that Iranians would show something, some willingness to get to yes,” said Malley, who led United States negotiators in Doha, in an NPR interview Tuesday.

Malley said the European Union – whose leading official Enrique Mora acted as a go-between in Qatar – had “put on the table very detailed outlines of what they think a fair outcome would be, and we’ve said we’re prepared to take that deal; the party that has not said yes is Iran.”

Malley said Iranian negotiators “seem at this point not capable of providing answers,” making the indirect, or ‘proximity’, talks “more than a little bit of a wasted occasion.”

“The discussion that really needs to take place right now is not so much between us and Iran, although we're prepared to have that,” Malley said. “It's between Iran and itself…They need to come to a conclusion about whether they are now prepared to come back into compliance with the deal.” He suggested Tehran had not made the “fundamental decision” as to whether they wanted to renew the 2015 deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which the US left in 2018.

New demands

Malley said Iran had in Doha added new demands, though he gave no details, and he gave no deadline over the negotiations, which are expected to resume after President Joe Biden’s mid-July Middle East trip.

Questioned over Iran’s growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Malley said Tehran was “a matter of weeks” from having enough for a bomb. “It would be something that we would know…and we would react quite forcefully, as you can imagine,” he said.

Malley reiterated the Biden administration’s view that “a very dangerous situation” had been created by President Donald Trump leaving the JCPOA in 2018, when the agreement was “working.”

“They’re much closer [now] to having enough fissile material for a bomb,” Malley said. “To our knowledge they have not resumed their weaponization program…but we are of course alarmed, as are our partners, about the progress they’ve made in the enrichment field and that’s why we think getting back to the deal is in our non-proliferation interest. We think it’s in their interests because they’d get sanctions lifted, but of course that’s an assessment that they alone have to make.”

Brokered by the European Union, two-day talks in the Qatari capital aimed at breaking a three-month impasse in negotiations for attaining a mutual return to compliance of the JCPOA, but both sides left disappointed.Tehran blames Washington’s refusal to guarantee Iran’s effective access to world markets, as required by the JCPOA, for lack of progress in the proximity talks, but says agreement is possible if the US is “realistic.”

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who arranged the Qatar talks on a visit to Tehran June 25-6, tweeted Tuesday, after a phone call with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, that “decisions are needed now” as the “political space to revive the JCPOA may narrow soon.”

He will also tell Macron that the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group is "playing with fire", Reuters quoted an official as saying.

Lapid's visit to France, his first abroad since becoming caretaker premier last week, is also a chance to flex diplomatic muscles as Israelis gear up for a snap election in November.

France is among world powers trying to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA, with Iran that the previous US administration quit, and which Israel opposed, deeming its caps insufficient.

"The French are very, very active on the Iranian issue," a senior Israeli official told reporters.

"It is important for us to make our case ... Israel opposes a return to the JCPOA (2015 nuclear deal). In the same breath, we do not oppose a deal. We seek a very strong deal."

Israel is not a party to the nuclear negotiations. But Western capitals have been attentive to its concerns about its arch-enemy and worried it might take pre-emptive military action if it deems diplomacy a dead end.

"We want an end to the unending talks," said the senior Israeli official, calling for "coordinated pressure" on Iran and offering help on "drafting an appropriate framework" for that.

On Saturday Israel shot down three Hezbollah drones launched toward one of its Mediterranean gas rigs.

The Karish rig near Lebanon's coast will produce gas not only for Israel, but eventually also for the European Union, the official said, tapping into EU countries' quest to replace Russia as an energy supplier since it invaded Ukraine.

The detention could be another example of the often-used Iranian tactic of imprisoning foreigners as hostages to exchange them with certain Iranians jailed in Western countries.

A draft law proposed by the Belgian government to the parliament could put the seal of approval on an agreement with Iran, which could lead to the release of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat serving a 20-year prison sentence in Belgium for planning a terror attack in Paris 4 years ago.

Iran’s security forces have detained Olivier Vandecasteele, 41, an aid worker who has served in various international humanitarian organizations since at least 2006, including, Médecins du Monde, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Relief International.

Vandecasteele worked in India, Afghanistan, and Mali and later became the director of NRC’s Iran operations in 2015 and assumed the same position with Relief International in Iran in 2020. He played an important role during the height of the Covid pandemic in Iran, distributing humanitarian aid throughout the country.

In July 2021, Relief International ended its relationship with Vandecasteele. In an email to Iran International, Relief International said it is not aware of Vandecasteele’s detention in Iran, despite information at our disposal showing that officials of the aid organization were informed of his arrest.

On July 2, an informed source had told Iran International that at least two Belgian citizens are currently in prison in Iran. One of the two is apparently an Iranian-Belgian professor from Leuven University, but the identity of the second prisoner was unclear until further investigation revealed it was Olivier Vandecasteele.

In what appeared to be internal organizational issues, he was put aside as a manager of Relief International last year and he returned to Europe. But an informed source told Iran International’s Fardad Farahzad that this could have resulted from pressures by Iran’s interior ministry’s foreign citizens’ bureau.

Vandecasteele, however, later returned to Iran on a tourist visa to visit a friend. It is possible that his return to Iran was an arranged trap by Iranian intelligence to detain and exchange him with Assadi.

The agreement to allow Iranian convicts serving their prison terms in Belgium to return to Iran and presumably serve their remaining sentences there has now opened a real chance that Assadi, convicted of terrorism, will be allowed to go back and be received as a hero, as some Belgian media and politicians have pointed out.

It is unclear if strong objections to the government bill by foreign figures, the opposition and other lawmakers in Belgium will stop its approval. A parliamentary committee is set to start debating the bill on July 5.

In a letter to president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives Eliane Tillieux, Former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, former National Security Advisor James L. Jones and seven other US dignitaries denounced the proposed Belgian-Iranian prisoner transfer treaty.

In a video message Friday, Darya Safai, a member of the Belgian Parliament of Iranian descent, protested to the government’s decision to rush a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran.

Safai told Iran International that the bill does not exclude those in prison for terrorist activities and will pave the way for the release of Iranians involved in terrorism in Belgium. “My life and that of my husband, children, and so many others are in danger.”

Another Belgian lawmaker, Michael Freilich, has also questioned the government's “urgent” prisoner exchange plans. “Why does this all have to be so fast?” he asked the Parliament. “I strongly oppose any deal to release convicted terrorists from jail.”

Relief International was established by an American-Iranian, Farshad Rastegar, after the devastating Bam earthquake in Iran that killed 26,000 people on December 26, 2003.

They focused on opportunities for greater cooperation on regional issues in a phone call, in which Blinken also thanked Al Thani for Qatar’s continued assistance with Iran and Afghanistan diplomacy, as well as Qatar’s announcement of an additional $60 million to support the Lebanese Armed Forces.

The American diplomat lauded Qatar’s efforts in helping to continue efforts for attaining a mutual return to full implementation of the 2015 nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in particular for Doha hosting indirect talks between Tehran and Washington.

Brokered by the European Union, the two-day talks in the Qatari capital last week were aimed at breaking a months-long impasse in negotiations to restore the JCPOA, but ended without any tangible results.

Tehran blames Washington’s inflexibility to guarantee Iran’s economic benefit under the deal for lack of progress in the proximity talks, while US officials say, "The Iranians have not demonstrated any sense of urgency, raised old issues that have been settled for months.”

In a phone call with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “The US side attended talks in Doha without an approach based on initiative and progress. Our assessment of Doha talks is positive but we should see how the US wants to seize this chance for diplomacy.”

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani paid an unannounced visit to Russia after Doha talks.

Bagheri-Kani’s immediate trip to Moscow after two days of indirect talks in Qatar with US envoy Rob Malley led to a lot of criticism in Iran by those who resent Moscow’s influence over Tehran and believe Russia is working against a nuclear agreement with Washington.

The trip was kept secret until Russian sources released the news and aphoto of Bagheri-Kani's meeting in Moscow.

Baghaeri Kani told reporters in Tehran on Monday that Iran has been consulting with all the parties to the 2015 nuclear agreement JCPOA, but “because the Russians have no Covid restrictions, sometimes they come and sometimes we go there.” He added that Chinese Covid restrictions make it harder to travel there.

Many newspapers and observers have criticized the Moscow trip after the failed talks.

Former deputy speaker of parliament Ali Motahari tweeted on Sunday that Tehran’s pro-Russia and pro-China policy has gotten to the point that “Russia’s foreign minister comes to Tehran before the Doha talks as if to say that although we are not there, the talks take place with our permission. And after the talks, Iran’s negotiating team immediately goes to Moscow to submit a report, before giving a report to the Iranian people.”

Motahari went on to say that Russia does not want the revival of JCPOA in order to prevent Iran from entering the global oil and gas market. “Unfortunately, our officials have tied our national interests to those of Russia,” he added.