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The White House says it is preparing for a diplomatic failure with Iran.
White House spokesman Jen Psaki has ordered the team to prepare for the possibility that Iran’s ongoing nuclear program will fail diplomacy and the United States will have to resort to other options. I told reporters.
“If diplomacy cannot get off the ground quickly and Iran’s nuclear program continues to accelerate, we will have to take additional steps to further limit Iran’s revenue-generating sector.” Said Pusaki.
Psaki added that Andrea Gacki, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury, will lead a delegation of the Treasury to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next week to discuss sanctions compliance. .. The trip will focus on engaging with private sector and UAE officials to discuss companies and financial institutions that promote non-compliant Iranian commerce, Pusaki said.
The Biden administration has implemented all Iran sanctions inherited from former President Donald Trump, who enforced sanctions after the United States withdrew from Iran’s nuclear agreement in 2018.
A year after the United States left the 2015 agreement, which included France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and China, Iran began to violate the nuclear restrictions outlined in the agreement, bringing the country closer to developing its ability to acquire nuclear weapons. ..
Biden signaled that he wanted to rejoin the deal.
But last week, the indirect US Iran nuclear program in Vienna made many compromises made by Iran’s new hard-line government under anti-Western President Ebrahim Raisi in the previous six rounds of negotiations. I failed when I abandoned it.
This caused a five-month hiatus in negotiations after Raishi’s election in June.
Round 7 discussions resumed on Thursday, with top Iranian negotiators saying they are sticking to the position Tehran set last week.
“Iran has emphasized that it is seriously continuing negotiations based on its previous position,” chief negotiator Ali Burgery Kani told reporters after the opening meeting with world powers on Thursday. ..
“Iran is serious about reaching an agreement if the ground is paved (towards an agreement) … the fact that all sides want to continue negotiations means that all parties want to close the gap. Shows, “said Kani.
“The runway is very short and we don’t have much time left,” State Department spokesman Edward Price said Thursday on Iran’s path to return to compliance under a nuclear deal through diplomacy.
Biden administration officials argue that diplomacy is the best way to bring Iran and the United States back into compliance with an agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“We are still working to see if that is the case,” says Price.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Nick Ciolino covers the White House.
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