Iran Demanding Too Much JCPOA Sanctions Relief, State Dept. Says
Iran hasn’t offered “serious” proposals to return to the Iranian nuclear deal and has continued to accelerate its nuclear program despite objections from the U.S. and other countries, a senior State Department official said. The official, speaking to reporters Dec. 4, suggested the latest round of talks to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ended poorly after Iran demanded too many concessions and offered too little in return.
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“Suffice it to say that they have put on the table when it comes to sanctions relief demands that go well beyond the scope of the JCPOA,” the official said. “We’ve made clear that we’re prepared to lift all of the sanctions that are in [accordance] with the deal, but if Iran wants us to go beyond that, then, of course, we’re talking about a different deal.”
The official said other parties to the JCPOA are also frustrated with Iran's demands, including Russia and China. There is “some impatience that after all this time what Iran came back with was to walk back anything that they had floated and to assume that they could pocket all of the compromises that others had made,” the official said.
Although the U.S. expects to hold another round of talks and said it is “still our goal” to return to the deal, officials are less optimistic about its prospects. “We’re obviously preparing for a world in which there is no return to the JCPOA,” the official said. The U.S. in June said “serious differences” still remained with Iran over its denuclearization efforts and sanction relief (see 2106240044).
Other parties in the deal, including the European Union, could reimpose sanctions under the JCPOA if Iran continues down this path, the official said. At the end of the day, “each country will have to make its own determination about whether they think that the time has come to say that the JCPOA no longer is viable,” the official said. “Again, I want to emphasize we did not reach that point. We still think there’s an opportunity to come back and that it’s the best course and it’s the quickest course.”
The U.S. is “well aware” that Chinese companies are buying Iranian oil in violation of U.S. sanctions, the official added, and has sanctioned some companies for doing so. “We’ll continue to do so if necessary,” the official said. But the official added that the “best way to approach this is diplomatically” with Beijing. “We think that’s a more effective way to do it, but we’ll see how those conversations ensue,” the official said. “But as I said, we’ve never said we would not impose sanctions, and we have imposed sanctions on entities involved in the purchase of Iranian oil.”