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Tuesday, January 12, 2021, 22:51
Iran wants sanctions 'snapback' removed in any new nuke talks
By Agencies
Tuesday, January 12, 2021, 22:51 By Agencies

Ali Akbar Velayati, chief foreign policy advisor to Iran's supreme leader, looks on during an agreement signing between the University of Aleppo and Tehran's Islamic Azad University on November 7, 2017, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (GEORGE OURFALIAN / AFP)

DUBAI - Iran demands the removal of the so-called snapback mechanism in its nuclear accord, which could revive all UN sanctions against Tehran, in the event of new talks with world powers, a senior aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for relief from US and other sanctions. The accord includes the option of a snapback of UN sanctions if Iran breaches the deal, requiring Tehran to suspend all nuclear enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research development.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for relief from US and other sanctions. The accord includes the option of a snapback of UN sanctions if Iran breaches the deal, requiring Tehran to suspend all nuclear enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research development

“This (trigger) mechanism must be abandoned as an irrational principle in the event of further negotiations,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Khamenei, said in an interview posted on the Supreme Leader’s website.

“From the beginning, the Supreme Leader was not satisfied with the issue of the trigger mechanism and this was done against his will,” said Velayati, a former foreign minister.

Iran has rejected Western calls for wider international talks over its nuclear and military ambitions after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

On Monday, the European Union said Iran must reverse its decision to enrich uranium at higher levels and give international diplomacy a chance to save the 2015 nuclear accord.

“The initiation of uranium enrichment to up to 20 percent by Iran at the underground Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant ... is a very serious development and a matter of deep concern,” the EU’s 27 governments said in a statement.

“At this critical juncture, Iran’s action also risks undermining efforts aimed at building upon the existing diplomatic process. We urge Iran to refrain from further escalation and reverse this course of action without delay.”

Iran started pressing ahead with plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent fissile strength at its underground Fordow nuclear plant last week.

World powers and Iran have weeks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal after Tehran began to enrich uranium at higher levels and Iran’s parliament threatened to curb the access of UN inspectors next month, the head of the global atomic watchdog said Monday.

Meanwhile, Israel is already plotting how to derail US President-elect Joe Biden’s promise for the US to rejoin the 2015 nuclear accord.

The high-profile campaign that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waged against the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran failed to block the 2015 agreement. Officials are now weighing whether that sort of public crusade or behind-the-scenes engagement will be the most effective strategy with Biden, a senior Israeli official said, emphasizing that no decision has been made.

Israel will start by sending a stream of envoys on visits to Washington, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations. It’s stated publicly that it doesn’t want the US  to abandon sanctions on the Islamic Republic without a new deal, and that a tougher stance should be taken toward its nuclear project, ballistic missile program and regional proxy forces.

ALSO READ: Iran threatens to halt implementing IAEA additional protocol

That strategy runs against the Biden team’s willingness to re-enter the deal, then negotiate an expansion of its terms. It’s conditioned on Iran’s returning to compliance with the accord, whose limits it breached after Trump pulled the US out of the agreement.

“It seems to me that we have to learn some lessons, first of all not to give up the sanctions five minutes before we start the negotiations,” Zohar Palti, head of the political-military bureau in Israel’s Defense Ministry, said at a conference last month.

Iran says it’ll welcome the US back to the accord but also demanded US$70 billion in compensation for lost oil revenue as a result of US sanctions.

Israel also has a higher-risk card up its sleeve: the potential to upend diplomatic efforts through covert operations against Iran. Tehran blames Israel for the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist in November, and its foreign minister this month accused Netanyahu’s government of trying to goad the US into war in an attempt to derail Biden’s efforts to revive the deal

Israel also has a higher-risk card up its sleeve: the potential to upend diplomatic efforts through covert operations against Iran. Tehran blames Israel for the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist in November, and its foreign minister this month accused Netanyahu’s government of trying to goad the US into war in an attempt to derail Biden’s efforts to revive the deal.

ALSO READ: US calls Iran's 20% uranium enrichment 'nuclear extortion'

Netanyahu has been open about his intention to thwart renewed US participation. In a rare public split, he rebuked his envoy to Germany for supporting Berlin’s push to expand the deal.

“There should be no return to the Iran nuclear agreement of 2015 -- a deal which is flawed to its foundations,” Netanyahu said.

Facing another round of national elections in March, Netanyahu is campaigning on his foreign policy and security record and highlighting his staunch opposition to the Iran accord, a consensus position in Israel that likely will hold no matter who wins the vote. 

That included a controversial address to the US Congress in 2015, where Netanyahu tried to persuade lawmakers to oppose Obama’s Iran policies. The speech was made without notifying the White House, a breach of diplomatic protocol viewed as an insult to the then-president.

ALSO READ: Iran starts producing 20% enriched uranium

Biden, who was vice president at the time, will seek a constructive relationship with Netanyahu and try to avoid public disagreements, according to a former senior US official in close contact with the Biden team. But general policy isn’t up for debate, the person said.

Immediate changes to Iran policy under the new US administration could include loosening access to humanitarian aid and making its trade mechanism with Europe work better, the former official added, asking not to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak for the president-elect.

“There won’t be a honeymoon between Biden and Netanyahu, but there doesn’t need to be the kind of soap opera that characterized the relationship under Obama,” said Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Mideast official at the State Department.

READ MORE: Rouhani: Next US govt 'should make up for Trump's mistakes'

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