Iran’s Top Nuclear Negotiator: Everything Is Open for Renegotiation

Iran took a tough stand Tuesday in talks over salvaging the nuclear deal negotiated with the world powers in 2015, just one day after the current round of negotiations opened in Vienna. Ali Bagheri, Tehran’s chief negotiator in the talks, insisted that all understandings reached in previous rounds amounted to a nonbinding “draft” that could be subject to renegotiation. “Drafts are subject to negotiation. Therefore nothing is agreed on unless everything has been agreed on,” he said on Iranian state television. “On that basis, all discussions that took place in the six rounds are summarized and are subject to negotiations. This was admitted by all parties in today’s meeting as well.” Bagheri also said that the Islamic Republic sought a “guarantee by America not to impose new sanctions” nor to reimpose previously lifted sanctions. Mohammed Eslami, the country’s civilian nuclear chief, said to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency that “the talks [in Vienna] are about return of the US to the deal and they have to lift all sanctions and this should be in practice and verifiable.” The United States pulled out of the deal in 2018 under the Trump Administration and reimposed sanctions on the country. Iran responded by ignoring key limitations of the 2015 deal: It enriches small amounts of uranium to 60% purity –a short technical step from achieving the 90% purity required to produce nuclear weapons – and stockpiles far more uranium than the deal permits. It has also impeded access to its nuclear facilities by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.