The diplomatic ping-pong game with Iran over the return to the nuclear deal continued, with the United States “calming down” the European Union, which wants to mediate between the parties, and even denying any contact between Iranian and American representatives of the Biden administration.
Biden signs first orders as US president at White House (Photo: Reuters)
At the same time, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated that “if the Americans are interested in returning to the nuclear agreement, then hello and hello. And if they do not want to – even then, welcome.” The Iranian president has made it clear that, as far as his country is concerned, no paragraph from the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 between it and the superpowers will change or be added.
Rouhani noted that the Americans violated the UN decision to conclude the nuclear deal, so they should not talk about it so much – and simply go back to the original agreement as signed at the time in Vienna.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price has meanwhile cooled Europe’s enthusiasm for mediating talks between the parties, after being “invited” to do so by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif. Peter Stano, a spokesman for European Foreign Minister Joseph Burrell, said on the issue that the EU was “working hard” to find a formula that would bring the US back to the agreement, while waiving sanctions against Iran.
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Ned Price (Photo: Reuters)U.S. spokesman Rice said the United States was consulting with its partners, but said it was not in a hurry, and that “there has been no recent contact between U.S. and Iranian representatives, not even from the moment the new U.S. administration is sworn in.”
The International Court of Justice in The Hague has rejected the objections filed by the United States, claiming that it has no authority to discuss the conflict between Washington and Tehran over the legality of the US sanctions imposed on Iran.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) updates in its report that the Iranians are nearing completion of the installation of advanced ER2M centrifuges at their Natanz underground nuclear facility, and at the same time have begun installing two series of advanced centrifuges at the nuclear centrifuge facility.