TEHRAN -- The Europeans on Tuesday issued a joint statement after new talks with Iran in Vienna, insisting that there had been relative progress, but also alleging that there were only a window of “a couple of weeks” not “a couple months” left to reach an agreement.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed that the talks had made progress, but alleged that Iran was dragging its feet in addition to accelerating its nuclear program.
The comments come from the same administration that upon assuming power, announced that the 2015 deal’s revival would take a long time and wasted five months to push its irrelevant excessive demands.
Understanding why the Western side insists on the window purportedly closing requires us to revisit the new U.S. positions on the deal and the developments that led to the resumption of the negotiations.
Fighting for the U.S. presidency, Joe Biden had made Donald Trump’s departure from the nuclear deal and his harm to the American prestige and credibility a central plank of his presidential campaign.
In so doing, Biden had created the impression that he would abandon Trump’s “maximum pressure” against Iran by returning the U.S. to the deal and removing Washington’s sanctions soon after assuming office.
However, shortly after occupying the White House, his new foreign policy officials indicated that Biden wanted to see if he could use the sanctions to arm-twist Iran into a deal beyond the previous one.
At the time, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that Washington sought to try for a “stronger and longer” agreement.
Not only did Blinken publicly announce this, he also clearly declared during congressional hearings that it would take long before the U.S. returned to the deal.
Blinken’s deputy Wendy Sherman echoed him by saying before Congress that the situation differed fundamentally compared
The spokesman described the meeting as “aggressive” and “provocative.”
Verifying Iran’s position of robust support for the Syrian Arab Republic’s sovereignty over Golan, Khatibzadeh noted that the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly likewise consider the territory to be a part of Syria.
The Golan Heights is an “indivisible” part of Syria, noted the spokesman, asserting that increasing the number of the illegal settlers would not be able to change this “undeniable” fact.
“Israeli settlers should know this that they will not be able to reside in occupied land forever,” Khatibzadeh said.
Syria and the Zionist regime are technically at war due to the latter’s 1967-present occupation of the plateau. Israel maintains a significant military presence in the territory, which it uses as a launch pad for its attacks on Syrian soil.
The Arab League and various Palestinian groups have similarly denounced Tel Aviv’s efforts to undermine Syria’s sovereignty over Golan.