Talks remain paused as Iran continues to demand that the United States lift the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation, though Iranian and European officials appear eager to resume negotiations.
Recent comments from Iranian officials suggest a renewed urgency to resume talks in-person in Vienna.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh called for a return to Vienna, saying on April 25, “it is appropriate that a face-to-face meeting is held as soon as possible,” and adding, “it is not yet decided where and when to have this meeting and at what level it should be held, but it is on the agenda.”
Khatibzadeh also said, “prolonging the pause in the negotiations is not in anyone’s interest,” clarifying that talks “have not stopped and are continuing through the coordinator of the Vienna negotiations.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borell and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abollahian spoke over the phone on April 22, with Borrell suggesting that “the EU’s coordinator for the talks, Enrique Mora, and Iran’s head nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani, are actively pursuing the resumption of negotiations.”
Separately, a former senior member of Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Ali Motahari alleged in an April 24 interview, “when we began our nuclear activity, our goal was indeed to build a bomb.” He added the objective of building a bomb was pursued and supported by “the entire regime, or at least, the people who started this activity.”
U.S. officials have now repeatedly stated that some form of “reciprocity” would be needed in order for the U.S. to lift the IRGC’s FTO designation, though they have yet to rule out lifting the designation and continue to show an interest in reaching an agreement.
The United States is not required to lift the FTO designation in order to resume compliance with the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement.
On April 28, an unnamed U.S. official was quoted in Politicosaying “unless Iran agrees to take certain steps to assuage security concerns beyond the JCPOA, Washington will not lift the terror designation, which is itself beyond the JCPOA.” He added, “the Biden administration is highly unlikely at this point to drop the designation in the context of the JCPOA talks.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on April 26 that the only way the U.S. would agree to delist the IRGC would be “if Iran takes steps necessary to justify the lifting of that designation,” though he didn’t specify exactly what that would entail.
“We continue to believe that getting back into compliance with the agreement would be the best way to address the nuclear challenge imposed by Iran,” Blinken also said.
An April 25 report stated that a senior U.S. official claimed “in recent U.S. inter-agency debate” that the Department of Defense came out against delisting the IRGC unless Iran agrees to a reciprocal non-nuclear concession, such as committing to not target each U.S. officials.
The official added, “those against [the delisting] were DoD and, ultimately, the White House … Israel was not a key factor.”
Reports from Israeli news outlets this week strongly suggested that the United States is shifting away from lifting the FTO designation and moving toward accepting that an agreement cannot be reached.
KANN news reported on April 26 that the Biden administration is increasingly willing “to announce that the Iran nuclear-JCPOA talks in Vienna have failed,” adding that, in light of the stalemate over the FTO designation, “the chances of reaching an agreement have been ‘greatly reduced.’”
Also on April 26, TheJerusalem Post reported that “the U.S. is moving toward ending its efforts to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.” A senior diplomatic source told the outlet, “the chances of the US and Iran returning to the JCPOA are ‘slim to none.’”
Congressional opposition to the lack of transparency from the Biden administration regarding the status of negotiations continues to mount.
Testifying before Senate and House committees this week, Secretary Blinken repeated State Department Spokesman Ned Price’s recent misleading and inaccurate claims about Iranian aggression solely being a result of the US withdrawal from JCPOA and putting IRGC on FTO list.
Blinken falsely claimed that from “2012 to 2018, there were virtually no attacks on American presence in the Middle East.” A recent JINSA National Security Brief shows that Iran engaged in repeated aggression during that period, such as naval harassment of U.S. vessels, including illegally seizing an American ship in January 2016.
Blinken agreed to hold an open hearing on Iran before Memorial Day, saying “we will make sure that we get that done.”
Reps. Claudia Tenney, María Elvira Salazar, Greg Steube, Ronny Jackson, and Don Bacon submitted a letter to the White House on April 26 pressing top administration officials to publicly brief Congress on diplomatic talks.
“While Iran continues to utilize its terrorist proxies … senior administration officials like Rob Malley are dodging questions from Congress and the American people by refusing to appear in public before the Foreign Affairs Committee. Today, I call on President Biden to ensure his administration is transparent with the American people,” Rep. Tenney said.