“We are closer to an agreement than we were two weeks ago, but gaps remain and the outcome of ongoing discussions remains uncertain,” Ned Price said at a State Department briefing.
In early August, the European Union (EU) submitted a document to revive the agreement, which top diplomat Josep Borrell called the “final document”, asking Washington and Tehran for answers. Iran submitted a response last week. The US has not yet responded. Mr Borrell said on Monday that Iran’s response was “reasonable”.
On Monday, Price said the US was still in talks, telling reporters: We will provide feedback from Iran to the EU as soon as possible.” He also said the US is “transmitting (its) feedback directly and privately to the EU”.
Pointing to Iran complicating negotiations, Price said the US was ready to accept the EU’s “final text” agreement, but Iran “responded with a few comments.”
“This is why it took us even longer to review these comments and determine our response,” he said, adding, “If there is a clear Iranian response, a clear yes answer, I I don’t know if we will.
Nonetheless, Price notes the fact that the United States “seems to have withdrawn some of its non-commencement demands, including delisting Iran from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) list of foreign terrorist organizations.” “There are still some open issues that need to be resolved, some gaps that need to be filled.”
He also reiterated that the United States hopes to reciprocate quickly to comply with the agreement “while recognizing the risks of maintaining the status quo.” A senior government official said the Biden administration believes that keeping the deal intact will increase the breakout time by several months.
“The current location where Iran can produce enough material for a bomb in days to weeks is a very dangerous place, and extending that timeline under a reinstated deal would be a much better place.” ‘ said Eric Brewer. Senior Director of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. “In my view, a six-month breakout timeline is sufficient. We offer you time to try to resolve it diplomatically.Optional.”
Henry Rohm, deputy head of research at Eurasia Group, told CNN that even if a deal was reached, Iran “will continue to do what it has been doing until the implementation process begins.” .
“Then, throughout that process, stop producing certain types of materials, scrap certain types of materials, export or otherwise dismantle some equipment, and perform such procedures. So we have to take some kind of physical measures,” he explained.
Price declined to provide details on what “unresolved issues” remain. Rohm told CNN, “The two main real issues are the issue over Iran’s economic guarantees and the IAEA safeguards investigation (by the International Atomic Energy Agency) trying to find a way to square the yen. It remains a problem,” he said.
Rome noted that “the last European draft contained that language[on IAEA safeguards investigations]. Iran did not necessarily accept it, but probably did not object to it.” .
“Iran has made it clear that it will not proceed with the JCPOA if the safeguards issue is not yet resolved, so it is closely related to this process, even though it is technically separate. ‘ he said.
CNN’s Adam Pourahmadi contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnn.com
