Will the United States be able to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons in time? Washington hopes to save the Vienna agreement of 2015, aimed at preventing it. For this, the United States says it is “ready to make difficult decisions to bring the Iranian nuclear program back to its limits”, declared the spokesman for American diplomacy Ned Price. The latter, however, refused to detail “which sanctions we are ready or not to lift”.
For its part, Tehran demands the removal of the Revolutionary Guards (the ideological army of the Iranian Islamic Republic) from the American blacklist of “foreign terrorist organizations”. This request is one of the very last obstacles to a compromise to resuscitate the Vienna agreement, which had allowed the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for clear restrictions on its nuclear activities to ensure, under international supervision, that ‘they remain strictly civil and peaceful.
“An agreement is neither imminent nor certain”
Israel and the American right are alarmed by the removal of the “Guardians” from this highly symbolic blacklist. But on the other hand, France, co-signatory of the agreement, insisted on the “urgency” to conclude an agreement because of the major advances in the Iranian nuclear program.
Since the arrival of Joe Biden at the White House last year, negotiations have been underway in Vienna to save this agreement. “There has been significant progress in recent weeks, but I want to make it clear that an agreement is neither imminent nor certain,” said Ned Price, as if to temper the optimism that had prevailed since the beginning of March among the negotiators.
“We are preparing in the same way for all scenarios, with or without mutual return to full respect” of the agreement, he warned. “President Biden has made a commitment that Iran, while in power, will not be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon, and that commitment is real and strong, whether with the deal or without. OK. »
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