US Warning: Some weeks left to save international deal on Iran nuclear program

There are only “a few weeks” left to save the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, if the Tehran continue to develop its nuclear capabilities at the current pace, US negotiator Rob Maley warned on Tuesday, referring to a “crisis” in the event of a failed diplomacy.

Indirect talks between the United States and Iran, which resumed in November after a five-month hiatus, have resumed. Asked by CNN, Maley said he hoped they would be repeated “relatively soon”..

For weeks now, Washington has been warning that it will soon be too late to revive the 2015 agreement – also known as the Joint Integrated Action Plan (JAP) – signed by the 5 + 1 Group (US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany). ) with Iran aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring an atomic bomb.

Westerners accuse Tehran of continuing to pursue its nuclear program while delaying talks in Vienna.

They do not give an ultimatum yet

But the US is not giving an ultimatum to Iran at the moment.

“I will not give a deadline,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reiterated yesterday, adding that the margin was becoming “very, very, very narrow”.

“At a given time, in the not-too-distant future, we will have to accept that the COSD is over and we will have to negotiate a completely different agreement, going through a period of crisis and escalation,” Maley said.

When asked by CNN when this moment will come, he replied: “If they stop their nuclear activities, we will have a little more time. If they continue at the current pace, we will have only a few weeks, really no more, in order to conclude that we can not revive “the KOSD.

Blinken reiterated that the US government is “actively” considering “alternatives” and other “options” in the event of a failed negotiation.

The United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the international agreement under the presidency of Donald Trump and reintroduced sanctions against Iran, which gradually began to withdraw from its commitments.

Incumbent President Joe Biden has said he is ready to push his country back into the deal if Tehran resumes its commitments, but the talks run into a range of sanctions that Washington should lift.

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