The White House on Friday dismissed the link between the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the closure of investigations by the UN nuclear watchdog a day after Iran reopened the issue, according to a Western diplomat .
Iran on Thursday sent its latest response to a proposed European Union (EU) text aimed at reviving the deal under which it curtailed its nuclear program in return for relief from US, EU and US economic sanctions. United Nations. Then-US President Donald Trump scrapped the deal in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, prompting Iran to start violating the deal’s nuclear restrictions and reigniting US, Arab and Israeli fears of search for an atomic bomb. Iran denies having nuclear ambitions.
“There should be no conditionality between the reimplementation of the JCPOA and investigations related to Iran’s legal obligations under the nonproliferation treaty,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Jean. Pierre, referring to the agreement officially known as the Joint Global Plan. of Action. Jean-Pierre was referring to investigations by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into traces of uranium found at three undeclared Iranian sites.
Resolving so-called safeguards investigations is key for the UN agency, which seeks to ensure that parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty do not secretly divert nuclear material that they could use for make a weapon. A senior US official said Aug. 23 that Iran had “essentially let go” of some of the key obstacles to reviving the 2015 deal, including on the IAEA, but the matter appears to have been deferred.
A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said Friday that Iran reopened the issue in its latest response, which Tehran called constructive, a characterization the United States disputed. Iran’s foreign minister said this week that the IAEA should drop its “politically motivated investigations” into Tehran’s nuclear work.
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