Senior Iranian Diplomat says He Met With Europeans In UAE
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani tweeted Tuesday that he met with British, French and German diplomats in the United Arab Emirates recently.
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani tweeted Tuesday that he met with British, French and German diplomats in the United Arab Emirates recently.
In a short tweet in Persian, Bagheri-Kani who is also the deputy foreign minister, did not provide any details but there have been numerous media reports recently of contacts between Iran and the United States.
The three European countries are signatories of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear accord and have remained in the defunct agreement after the United States pulled out in 2018. During the Biden administration, however, their diplomatic approach has been more closely coordinated with Washington.
Western and Israeli reports, generally relying on anonymous diplomatic sources, say that Washington is exploring the idea of an interim nuclear deal with Tehran – possibly unwritten – that would aim to limit or cap the current dangerous levels of uranium enrichment in exchange for allowing other countries to release Iran’s blocked funds. Some have also suggested that beyond that the US might allow a limited amount of Iranian oil to be exported.
A second issue that has been the focus of contacts is US and Western demands that Tehran should free all prisoners it has arrested for no valid reason and essentially has jailed as hostages.
Neither Washington nor Tehran have denied meetings and contacts. In fact, the US State Department has repeatedly said it has its channels to relay messages to Tehran.
The Iranian foreign ministry Monday denied that an interim nuclear deal has been reached, although it did not deny that talks may be taking place.
Reuters quoted a US official also on Monday as saying that the United States and Iran are not discussing an interim nuclear deal, but Washington has told Tehran of steps that might trigger a crisis and those that may create a better climate between the long-time antagonists.
"There are no talks about an interim deal," said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We have made clear to them what escalatory steps they needed to avoid to prevent a crisis and what de-escalatory steps they could take to create a more positive context," he said, declining to detail these but noting Washington would like to see greater Iranian cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Reuters said that his comment went further than a US denial last week, which called a report the nations were nearing an interim deal "false and misleading" and said reports of such a deal were "false" but did not deny the possibility of talks about one.
The official did not deny media reports of recent US-Iranian contacts but rather said that suggestions they were about an interim nuclear deal were inaccurate.
Also, on Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his position that Iran is the biggest threat to his country’s security, and no agreement with Tehran will be binding on Israel.
“Over 90% of our security problems stem from Iran and its proxies, and our policy is aimed at increasing the circle of peace, to stop Iran and its proxies.”
Speaking at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Netanyahu said our position is clear: No agreement with Iran will be binding on Israel, which will continue to do everything to defend itself. Our opposition to a return to the original agreement, I think it is working, but there are still differences of outlook and we do not hide them, also about smaller agreements. We enunciate our policy clearly both openly and in closed rooms.
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the former head of the Iranian Parliament's Foreign Policy and national Security Committee who often commentates on nuclear-related issues, claimed that Tehran and Washington are willing to agree to an “unwritten deal”.
“This means that the American side will no longer enforce the ‘maximum pressure’ policy [of the Trump administration], close its eyes to some of Iran's energy deals, and [allow] the release of Iran's frozen funds in return for Iran refraining from expanding its nuclear program more than the current level,” he told Khabar Online in Tehran.
Falahatpisheh also said a return to the JCPOA is no longer desired by either of the sides because both know that it can no longer be revived.
A return to the 2015 deal, he said, will force Tehran to give up much of the advancements it has made in its nuclear program at a very high cost, that is, giving up its new and more advanced centrifuges and a stockpile of 60-percent enriched uranium, banned under the JCPOA.
Also, the pressure of public opinion in the US has made a return to the deal impossible for the Biden administration, he argued.
Falahatpisheh also said the US may agree to Iran selling one million barrels of oil per day.
Referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s implicit endorsement of some kind of agreement, the moderate conservative former lawmaker told Khabar Online that Khamenei’s stance was “close to the views of moderates such as Mohammad-Javad Zarif, the former foreign minister who was the lead Iranian person in the 2015 deal.
Addressing a group of Iranian nuclear scientists and officials in Tehran Sunday, Khamenei said a deal with West can be accepted if it does not impact Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and insisted that Iran will not opt for nuclear weapons simply because of Islamic principles, “otherwise, they could not have prevented us.”
Many in Iran interpret Khamenei’s remarks as endorsement of an deal, similar to his 2013 implicit endorsement of talks that led to the signing of the JCPOA. This interpretation was reflected by a slight drop in forex rates: The dollar which stood at 490,000 rial against the rial Sunday dropped to 470,000 on Monday.
"I'm not opposed to the right diplomatic moves. I believe in what was described years ago as heroic flexibility," Khamenei said in a September 17 speech to Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commanders.
“Heroic flexibility” in dealing with the West regarding the nuclear issue, he said, was similar to a wrestler exercising flexibility as a tactic to overcome his adversary, but insisted that Iranian diplomats had to remain faithful to the Islamic Republic’s principles. "A wrestler who exercises flexibility for a tactical reason should not forget who his rival is and what his goal is," he said.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, however, on Monday rejected speculations about an interim deal with the US. “We confirm no such thing as negotiations for an interim agreement or new arrangements to replace the nuclear deal,” he told reporters at his weekly press conference.
While confirming that Tehran and Washington had held talks in Muscat, Oman, in the past few weeks, he also denied that the talks had been held secretly as alleged by the media.
Kanaani also said Monday that Tehran and Washington could be “very close to exchanging prisoners” without giving any details.
On Saturday a senior Iraqi official was quoted as saying that his country has acquired a sanctions waiver from the US to pay $2.7 billion of its debt for gas and electricity to Iran. The release of Iranian funds in Iraq could be the price for the release of American, and possibly other western hostages, held by Iran.
Speaking during his weekly press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said: “We confirm no such thing as negotiations for an interim agreement or new arrangements to replace the nuclear deal.”
Despite the fact that Tehran’s extraneous demands collapsed the Vienna talks, Kanaani claimed that “Iran’s government has never left the negotiation table and has shown its readiness to conduct serious and substantive negotiations in order to reach a conclusion” on reviving the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
His remarks came only a day after Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei said reaching a deal would be acceptable if the country’s nuclear infrastructure remains intact. Echoing Khamenei’s remarks, Kanaani reiterated that Iran will continue to rely primarily on trying to neutralize sanctions as it does not trust the West, and at the same time, pursue negotiations to have them removed altogether.
Former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear pact in 2018, and imposed tighter sanctions on Iran’s energy exports but Tehran has since ramped up nuclear enrichment.
After much speculation, Kanaani also confirmed reports about talks between Iran and the US through Oman in the past few weeks, claiming the Muscat talks were not secret, but an opportunity to defend Iran's national interests.
“We welcomed the mediation proposal put forward by senior Omani officials several weeks ago, and exchanged messages with the opposite side [US], with the aim of activating the ‘sanctions removal’ talks,” he said, using the Islamic Republic’s jargon for Vienna talks.
His claim was also repeated by Mohammad Marandi, a de facto spokesman for the regime who said in an interview with Qatar-based TV channel Al Araby that there have been no secret negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Offering an insight into details of the secret discussions, Marandi, a US citizen close to Tehran's leadership, indicated there are more than nuclear issues on the table. “There is no direct negotiation between Iran and the United States but indirect negotiations are held by sending messages via third parties, and all of the messages are related to the issue of prisoners and assets that the United States has seized," he said.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman also revealed in his presser on Monday that Tehran and Washington are close to a prisoner-swap agreement.
He said that although the Islamic Republic is engaging with the US through intermediaries about prisoner swaps, the two could be “very close” to an agreement. “We hope to see the exchange of prisoners because we made all the necessary efforts,” he added.
On Friday, Axios revealed details of the talks between American and Iranian officials in Muscat last month with Omani mediators shuttling between their separate rooms to deliver messages.
According to the Axios report, the “proximity talks,” which have not been previously reported, represent the first known indirect engagement between Tehran and Washington in this way in several months. White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani were among the officials who traveled to Oman secretly for talks.
The report came after the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye claimed Iran and the United States “are nearing a temporary deal that would swap some sanctions relief for reducing Iranian uranium enrichment activities.”
In a tweet on Sunday, Reza Pahlavi urged the European authorities to reconsider their current position and proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist group, based on a report the lawyers have presented to his office and heads of governments.
“Listing this entity, which is dedicated not to protecting Iran or Iranians but instead the power of the dictatorship, would be a strong and long-awaited recognition of reality and a show of support to my compatriots who are fighting for freedom and democracy in our country.”
Unlike the United States which in 2019 under former President Donald Trump put the IRGC on its Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list, European countries avoided the designation in the past few years and prioritized diplomacy with the Islamic Republic in the hope of concluding a nuclear deal.
Many politicians in France, Germany, and other European countries have been keen to pursue the IRGC’s designation by the EU and say that it has been long overdue. In January, the European Parliament approved a resolution with absolute majority to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. However, the EU refused to do so, with its Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell saying the move needs a ruling by a European court.
The document cited by Pahlavi refers to the Common Position adopted by the EU following the 9/11 attack, saying that the same definitions used to describe persons, groups and entities involved in that terrorist acts apply for the IRGC.
The legal report says a "terrorist act" shall mean any intentional act that may seriously damage a country or an international organization, seriously intimidating a population, or unduly compelling a government and seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country.
Having stated the statutes that provide the legal basis for listing an entity on the European list of terrorist organizations, the group of lawyers went on to provide examples of such acts by the IRGC to prove that the entity deserves to be designated, like all the other groups that the EU has blacklisted.
“The study of the IRGC confirms that it constitutes a structured organization which has carried out terrorist attacks and which has been the subject of decisions by competent authorities which the Council of the European Union could take into account in order to proceed with its inclusion on the European list of terrorist organizations,” read part of the document.
A noteworthy point in the document is the often-ignored duty of the IRGC according to the Islamic Republic’s Constitution: Exporting the revolution.
“The Constitution distinguishes the mission assigned to the IRGC to continue the Islamic Revolution, considering ultimately that the fall of the regime of the Shah of Iran and the establishment of the regime of the Islamic Republic do not constitute the end of the Islamic Revolution,” it reads, arguing that IRGC's mission to pursue the Islamic Revolution ideologically, beyond the borders of Iran may be among the main reasons behind its extra-territorial destabilizing activities.
Among the reasons that legally justifies the designation of the outfit, the document points out that the IRGC has planned and executed numerous operations aimed at assassinating Iranian opposition figures. “It also carried out attacks against foreign personalities and institutions that the Islamic Republic considered at the time as enemies or contrary to its interests,” added the document.
The documents also provided a long list of assassinations and terrorist acts tracing back to the IRGC as the cases that the EU can use to proscribe the group.
The cases include the assassination of Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister of the Shah in 1991; assassination of Shahriar Shafiq, the nephew of the Shah of Iran, in 1979; the kidnapping of David Stuart Dodge, the president of the American University of Beirut, in 1982; attacks on the US Embassy and US Marines in Beirut in 1983; wave of attacks in Paris, 1985 and 1986; the Mykonos restaurant assassinations in 1992; and attack on AMIA in Argentina in 1994; as well as recent plots, such as the attempted assassination of John Bolton in 2022 and attempted assassination of opposition figure Masih Alinejad.
A presupposition prevailing throughout the text is that the European Union seeks to designate the IRGC and only lacks the proper legal bases, as proclaimed by Borrell. However, it seems that the reluctance to blacklist the IRGC is based on political reasons.
Talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal came to an abrupt stop in 2022, reportedly for Iran’s insistence that the IRGC be removed from the US FTO list.