US to Iran’s Raisi: Seize opportunity for diplomacy now
The stance by Washington official comes as Raisi pledges ‘diplomacy’ and ‘constructive’ engagement in his inaugural speech.


Ebrahim Raisi, an anti-Western political leader, has assumed Iran's presidency adding uncertainty to outlook for renewal of Iran's 2015 agreement not to pursue nuclear weapons [File: Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]
5 Aug 2021
A United States diplomatic spokesman has urged Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi to return to talks on the resumption of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, repeating a US stance that the window for diplomacy would not stay open forever.

Iran has been negotiating with six leading powers to revive a deal abandoned unilaterally in 2018 by then-US President Donald Trump, who claimed the agreement was ineffective and adopted a hardline policy towards Tehran.

Multilateral talks in Vienna on renewing the ban on Iran gaining nuclear weapons were suspended on June 20 pending the outcome of Iran’s national election which Raisi won.

“Our message to President Raisi is the same as our message to his predecessors … the US will defend and advance our national security interests and those of our partners,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington, DC, on Thursday.


“We hope that Iran seizes the opportunity now to advance diplomatic solutions,” Price said.

The 60-year-old Raisi, a frontrunner to replace the 82-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in his inaugural address on Thursday that Iranians want to maintain the
country’s independence and resist foreign bullying.

Raisi promised to pursue “diplomacy and constructive and extensive engagement with the world”, reiterating his stance that boosting relations with regional neighbours would be at the top of his foreign policy.


“I extend a hand of friendship and brotherhood to all countries, especially those in the region,” Raisi said.

The US and its allies, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel have been in a simmering confrontation with Iran in the region.

The US, the United Kingdom and Israel have blamed Iran for an armed drone attack on an Israeli oil tanker, the Mercer Street, that killed two crew members in the Gulf of Oman last week.

Israel has said it provided allies “hard evidence” that Iran was behind the attack on the tanker, without offering details. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of a “collective response”.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has said Israel’s military is ready to take action against Iran, calling it “a global and regional problem”.

On Trump’s orders, the US military assassinated Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani in an air raid in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020. Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was gunned down by Israeli agents inside Iran in November 2020.

Since taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden and his team have sought to reduce tensions with Iran in the region and have sought its return to the 2015 nuclear ban.


“We urge Iran to return to the negotiations soon so that we can seek to conclude our work,” Price added during a regular briefing.

“This process cannot go on indefinitely” and at some point, the benefits of reviving the 2015 agreement will have been eroded by the advancements of Iran’s nuclear programme, Price said.

After Trump withdrew from the 2015 deal and the US imposed new economic sanctions on Tehran in violation of the agreement, Iran began enriching uranium at higher concentrations. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/5/us-to-irans-raisi-seize-opportunity-for-diplomacy-now

 

Like anyone believes, who the entire world recognizes as,.... the butcher of Tehran and a war criminal

Unfortunately, it looks like things will be heating up shortly, hezbulla, a terror proxy of iran, entrenched in the Lebanese govt and destroying the nation from within, has been firing rockets into Israel,
iran is know where near working a nuke deal, why would they, only 10 weeks from their goal, iran doesnt care anymore about sanctions, the mullahs want a bomb so bad they can taste it...

Gantz: Iran is 10 weeks from breakout to a nuclear weapon
"Israel had warned the US that Iran would use a break in JCPOA talks to advance its nuclear program."

Tehran will be able to break out to a nuclear weapon within 10 weeks, Defense Minister Benny Gantz told diplomats from UN Security Council member states on Wednesday as tensions ratcheted up between Iran and the international community over its maritime attacks.
“Iran has violated all of the guidelines set in the JCPOA [nuclear agreement] and is only around 10 weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon,” Gantz warned.
“Therefore,” he added, “it is time to act. The world must apply economic sanctions and take operative action against the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps,” which has targeted shipping vessels.

In recent weeks, top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Gantz have expressed alarm to the US and others that Iran is taking advantage of a long pause in negotiations to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to dramatically advance its nuclear program.
The talks have been on hold since June, and the regime in Tehran says they will not restart at least until after its new president, Ebrahim Raisi, forms a new government later this month.
Gantz’s remarks were made in a presentation with Lapid to diplomats from UN Security Council member states on Wednesday, as part of a push by Israel for the UNSC to sanction Iran for its maritime attacks, including on the Mercer Street ship, which is managed by an Israeli company, and the Asphalt Princess in the Gulf in the past week.
These attacks are not just on Israel, but are on the world, and therefore the world must react in a united way to ensure Iran takes responsibility for its aggression, was the senior ministers’ message. However, they told the ambassadors that Israel would retain its freedom to act against Iran in response to any attacks or threats on its citizens.

 

iran is firing rockets into Northern Israel via its terror proxi hizbulla in Lebanon...this has nothing to do with palitsianains, this is iran attacking Israel.
hizbulla fires and stores its rockets, launchers, terror tunnels into israel in civilian houses, hospitals, schools basements of UN offices, churches and mosques...

Israel will do the best it can in avoiding civilian causalities, as it always has, but some innocent civilian Lebanese will die because once again, arabs are firing rockets into Israeli towns

Hizballah joins Iran offensive with 19 rockets against N. Israel – most knocked out by Iron Dome & Patriots

The Lebanese Shiite Hizballah joined Iran’s offensive against Israel on Friday morning, Aug. 6, by letting 19 rockets fly from Lebanon against Upper Galilee population centers and IDF posts on Mt. Hermon, drawing retaliatory IDF air strikes against “the rockets’ launch sources.” Iron Dome and Patriot defense batteries shot down 10 of the incoming rockets, 6 exploded on open ground and three landed short on the Lebanese side of the border. No damage or casualties were immediately reported.

Unusually in the shadow war ongoing between Israel and Iran, the Lebanese Hizballah formally acknowledged the rocket attack and said it was in reprisal for Israel’s air raid over Lebanon two days ago, which targeted the southern town of Marjayoun. That Israeli air force operation, the first since the 1966 Lebanon war, came after three rockets were fired from Lebanon and started a fire outside Kiryat Shemona.

The Hizballah statement read: “At 11:15 a.m., the squads, in the names of the martyrs Ali Kamal Mohsain and Mahmoud Hassan Sahan, launched scores of 122mm rockets against IDF posts in the Shabaa Farms region (of Mt. Hermon) in retaliation for Israel’s air strikes over Lebanon. Lebanese media reported that the rockets were launched from the Al Aqroub area and Israeli jets were sighted overhead.
It was the first time after many years that Iran’s Lebanese Shiite proxy had owned up to a direct military operation against Israel, thereby hiking up the tension with Iran to a new level.

DEBKAfile’s military sources say Israel ought to have seen the Hizballah attack coming since Iran is evidently on the warpath against the Jewish state and has been testing the ground.

Tehran registered Israel’s reluctance to strike back for the drone attack on the Mercer Street. Its new leaders were content with fiery rhetoric warning Tehran it would “regret its “mistake.” They eventually took their line from the US and the UK which talked about a “collective response” while putting the incident firmly behind them. Then came another test of the new government’s mettle, the triple rocket launch from Lebanon by a Palestinian faction linked to Hamas. The Israeli air raid did go into action, but only over empty ground around Marjayoun and well away from any Hizballah sites or assets.

By their overly cautious responses to these acts of aggression, which were undoubtedly orchestrated by Tehran, and deference to friends and allies, Israel’s leaders left the door open to the Hizballah initiative and, by the same token, to any further stages in Iran’s carefully planned campaign of belligerence.

 

CENTCOM: Iran was behind Mercer Street attack
An investigation led by the US Central Command has concluded that Iran was responsible for the attack on Mercer Street which left two crewmembers dead. British and Israeli experts concur.

The US Central Command announced, following an investigation, that Iran was behind the attack on the motor tanker Mercer Street which left two crew members dead on July 30.
The investigation found that Mercer Street was targeted by two unsuccessful explosive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks on the evening of July 29, both of which were reported by the crew via distress calls. The investigative team found small remnants of at least one of the UAVs, which the crew had rescued from the sea, corroborating the reports and proving them to be credible
The significant damage done to Mercer Street a day later on July 30, was the result of a third UAV attack.The UAV was loaded with military-grade explosives, which created a 6-foot hole in the topside of the pilot house and badly damaged the interior. Two crew members, a Romanian citizen and a British National were killed in the explosion.

 

The govt of iran, if you can call it a govt, in their rush to attacking Israel, killed a Romanian citizen and a British National,
Iran is increasing its attacks on Israel through its terror proxies, who fire rockets into Israeli towns, so of course Israel defends itself...
Israel is surrounded on all sides by irans terror proxies and the mediteranian sea, iran who every mulla and govt official since 1979 has publicly stated, in and out of iran and at the UN that they will destroy israel
the same iran that might be weeks away from making a nuke...

Does anybody believe the terror nation iran when it says its nuke energy is for peaceful purposes...if any nation will start ..."WWIII" no doubt it will be iran

 

Nations in the region understand the dangers of a nuclear iran and the threat it posses to neighbors near and far

Iran deal instigated violence, says senior Bahraini official in Jerusalem
“The JCPOA [nuclear deal] has caused more instigation and extremism in many different regions across the Middle East.”



The 2015 nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran led to greater violence and extremism in the Middle East, Bahrain Undersecretary for International Relations at the Foreign Ministry Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said in Jerusalem on Sunday, the first day of a four-day trip aimed at deepening relations between Bahrain and Israel.

“The JCPOA [nuclear deal] has caused more instigation and extremism in many different regions across the Middle East,” Al Khalifa warned. “Was there any good result that we have come out with? On the contrary. The JCPOA fueled crises across the Middle East.”
The Bahraini official spoke at the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat), which Al Khalifa heads, and the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

JCPA president Dore Gold said the goal of this partnership and his think tank’s work with a research institute in the United Arab Emirates is “to create an array of cooperation agreements with the countries of the Abraham Accords and to convey a message to the US, Europe and other countries, of a realistic understanding of the challenges that we share – the danger of Iran’s policies in the region and the world.”

Al Khalifa met with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and is expected to meet President Isaac Herzog.
In addition, Al Khalifa and Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz will prepare for an eventual meeting between Lapid and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani, under the auspices of a high steering committee for relations between Bahrain and Israel, which they lead and will meet this week.
The Bahraini official is also expected to meet with the Foreign Ministry’s Cadets Course, to discuss Israel-Bahrain relations, and to visit Israeli civil society organizations and think tanks as part of his goal to strengthen ties between the countries.
Official diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain were announced on September 11, 2020, in the framework of the Abraham Accords, after years of mostly behind-the-scenes ties.
Al Khalifa also holds the positions of deputy secretary-general of the Supreme Defense Council and undersecretary for political affairs at the Foreign Ministry in Bahrain, and is in charge of the Israel portfolio at the ministry. He visited Israel twice previously in December 2020, with Bahrain’s foreign minister and minister of economy.
The undersecretary’s official biography says that he is “a fierce advocate for Bahrain’s historical tradition of tolerance, especially for Bahrain’s indigenous Jewish and Christian communities.”

 

What We’re Following Today

Raisi’s first call. Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, chose to talk to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron when making his first phone call to a Western leader on Monday, asking him to help secure Iran’s “rights” in nuclear negotiations—a sign that Tehran has not closed off the possibility of another round of talks in Vienna.

Raisi also criticized the Trump administration for withdrawing from the deal and imposing new sanctions. In a nod to recent accusations from the West on Iranian maritime attacks, Raisi said Iran was “very serious about providing security and preserving deterrence” in its surrounding waters, Iranian state media reported. Macron urged Raisi to resume the stalled negotiations and to stop nuclear activities outside the 2015 agreement, according to a statement from the French government.

Foreign Policy Morning Brief

 

US ‘defeat’ in Afghanistan a chance for peace: Iran president
American exit should ‘revive life, security and lasting peace’ in Afghanistan, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi says.

 

Gotta love how stumbler keeps pushing the message from our enemies who routinely declare "DEATH TO AMERICA!!"
Course, he keeps calling America a "shithole country" so that does make a weird sort of sense.

 

Iran’s uranium enrichment. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that Iran has increased the enrichment of uranium to levels above those allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal, adding a second cascade of centrifuges to one that began enriching uranium to the 60 percent level in May. Although still far short of the 90 percent level needed for a nuclear weapon, Iran’s enrichment has raised concerns among U.S. and European officials. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Iran’s “mitigation and countermeasures will be reversible” if the United States lifts its sanctions and other global powers agreed on a return to the 2015 deal.

Foreign Policy Morning Brief

 

Yep.
Hates America. Loves Iran. That's our stumbler.

 

The treasonous conservative/Republicans really showed their fake patriotism on this one defending Trump while denigrating our injured troops.

Former Trump official says she was told to withhold news of troop injuries in Iran attack

Travis Gettys
September 09, 2021



Alyssa Farah (Fox News/screen grab)


A former Pentagon official says Donald Trump's White House asked her to delay and minimize reports that U.S. troops had suffered traumatic injuries from an Iranian missile attack last year in Iraq.

Alyssa Farah, who was press secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense at the time, said the Pentagon initially told Trump there had been no casualties in the Jan. 8, 2020, strike, but she said the White House then applied pressure to make that appear true even after it became clear some of their injuries were serious, reported The Guardian.

"I think where things got shaky was there was an effort from the White House to want to say, this was not successful – the Iranians were not successful in harming our targets in response, and I think that went too far," Farah told the podcast, One Decision, hosted by former CNN reporter Michelle Kosinski and Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency. "I think that it ended up glossing over what ended up being very significant injuries on US troops after the fact,."

About 80 percent of the more than 100 American troops injured were able to return to duty within days, but dozens had to be evacuated to Germany and then the U.S. for treatment, and she said the White House was aggravated that the numbers kept rising through the month.

"We did get pushback from the White House of, 'Can you guys report this differently? Can it be every 10 days or two weeks, or we do a wrap-up after the fact?'" Farah said. "The White House would prefer if we did not give regular updates on it. It was this drip, drip of quote-unquote bad news."

The attack was Iran's retaliation for the U.S. drone killing of Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Suleimani five days earlier, which then-U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo said was necessary to prevent an "imminent" threat, which Farah insisted came from "extremely credible" information.

"The 'imminence' is really the word that I think folks would get hung up on how immediate it was," Farah said, adding that she cautioned top Pentagon officials from using as the sole justification for Suleimani's killing. "We had a terrorist on the battlefield in Iraq and an extremely bold thing for this leader to be doing, watching the Green Zone be attacked from the ground in Iraq."


https://www.rawstory.com/alyssa-farah/

 

rent free
tax free

Diversion attempt FAIL
The afghan withdrawal has gotten Americans killed, our allies murdered, and its all biden/harris's fault.

No matter.
2022 approaches.

 

IAEA and Iran reach agreement to avert nuclear deal crisis
Iran and the UN’s nuclear agency reached an agreement on Sunday and said talks will continue later this month.


An Iranian man walks by posters of President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran in June [File: Atta Kenare/AFP]
By Maziar Motamedi
12 Sep 2021
Tehran, Iran – The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog and Iran’s nuclear chief have reached an agreement that will prevent another crisis looming over the prospect of restoring Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), landed in Tehran late on Saturday and met Mohammad Eslami, the newly appointed head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, on Sunday morning.

It was Grossi’s first trip to Tehran during the new administration of President Ebrahim Raisi, who appointed Eslami as the new nuclear chief on August 29.

Both sides called the meeting “constructive” and agreed they will continue discussions on the sidelines of the agency’s general conference in Vienna later this month.

They also agreed that Grossi would travel to Tehran again soon to replace the agency’s monitoring cameras’ memory cards, which will still be kept in Iran in line with a law passed by the hardline Iranian parliament in December.

Iran has since February said it will only hand over the tapes to the agency after an agreement is reached in Vienna that will lift unilateral United States sanctions.

“What matters to us, and the agency also emphasises upon, is to build trust,” Eslami said following the meeting.


Gharibabadi
@Gharibabadi
Joint Statement by th Head of AEOI and IAEA DG: the parties recalled and reaffirmed the spirit of cooperation and mutual trust and its continuation and emphasized on the necessity of addressing the relevant issues in a constructive atmosphere and exclusively in a technical manner
3:33 AM · Sep 12, 2021


High enrichment
The meeting came days after two new confidential IAEA reports were shared with the media, showing the agency’s concern over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The reports said Iran has failed to adequately cooperate on the agency’s recording equipment, some of which may have been destroyed after an incident, while it is resuming high enrichment of uranium, and has not provided a full explanation on nuclear materials at several locations.

Iran had doubled down after the reports, calling on the agency to maintain its independence and refrain from political moves.

Censure avoided
Grossi is slated to immediately return to Vienna, where he is expected to hold a news conference later on Sunday.

The last-minute meeting on Sunday was reportedly facilitated by Russia, which has not been in favour of a resolution against Iran at the next conference of the IAEA board of governors on Monday as it could derail nuclear deal talks.



Mikhail Ulyanov
@Amb_Ulyanov
We wholeheartedly wish the #IAEA and #Iran to maintain fruitful and businesslike relations. Good luck!

IRNA News Agency
@IrnaEnglish

Iran state-affiliated media
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (@iaeaorg) @rafaelmgrossi arrived in #Iran today. He will meet Vice-President and head of the @aeoi_ir . The two sides will issue a joint Statement.

3:42 AM · Sep 12, 2021

President Raisi earlier this month warned that a censure against Iran at the conference hosted by the Austrian capital could negatively affect a return to the negotiation table, which Iran has not returned to since July 20 when the sixth round of talks concluded.

A similar temporary technical agreement between Iran and the IAEA over monitoring in late February had also averted a censure scenario, led by the US with support from Europe, at the agency’s previous conference.

Raisi, who took office in early August, has said he wishes to continue the Vienna talks, but will not engage in negotiations for the sake of negotiations.

Avoiding a resolution against Iran would anger opponents of the nuclear deal, specifically Israel, which has been lobbying against the deal’s restoration. Israel’s Defence Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday called for the imposition of more sanctions on Iran to prod it towards an agreement.

The nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in 2015 by Iran, the US, France, the United Kingdom, China, and Russia. But the US unilaterally abandoned it in 2018, imposing harsh sanctions.

In response to the sanctions, attacks on its nuclear facilities, and the assassination of a top nuclear scientist, Iran gradually boosted its nuclear programme, and is now enriching uranium to 60 percent, its highest-ever level.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/12/iaea-and-iran-reach-agreement-to-avert-nuclear-deal-crisis

 

Well?
What're the details of the agreement?
You know, that averts a crisis?

Did Iran agree to stop high enrichment production?
Did Iran agree to confirmation of stocks?
Did Iran agree to stop supporting terrorists?

NO??

Then what, exactly, did they agree to?
You know, to avoid crisis?

 

This seems like a 180 degree change in tone,

Gantz open to Iran deal. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that he could “accept” a new nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, in an exclusive interview with Foreign Policy. “The current U.S. approach of putting the Iran nuclear program back in a box, I’d accept that,” Gantz told Neri Zilber in an interview conducted last week. The remarks showcase a shift from the previous Benjamin Netanyahu-led government, who had opposed the deal and sought to undermine it. Gantz nevertheless called for a “viable U.S.-led plan B” of economic pressure should talks falter. Failing that, Gantz said, Israel would consider its own “Plan C,” a military option.

Foreign Polly Morning Brief

 

This is a surprise to me at least and I think indicates there are new players in the game taking a more active role.

What Iran’s membership of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation means
Iran’s membership in the organisation is a success, but its extent will likely be limited in the short term.


Iranian President Raisi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan [Didor Sadulloev/Reuters]
By Maziar Motamedi
19 Sep 2021



Tehran, Iran – Iran’s bid to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was approved after almost 15 years by the bloc’s seven permanent members on Friday.

After the technical and legal process concludes – which could take up to two years – Iran will formally join a group that accounts for about one-third of the world’s land and exports trillions of dollars annually – as it counts China, Russia and India, in addition to several Central Asian states, among its members.

Following his return from a summit in Tajikistan’s Dushanbe, President Ebrahim Raisi termed the approval a “diplomatic success” that means linking Iran to the economic infrastructures of Asia and its vast resources.

During a speech at the two-day summit, he had denounced “unilateralism” by the United States and called for a concerted effort to fight sanctions.

President Raisi held a string of high-level bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO summit. Among other things, they led to the signing of eight agreements with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon.

The two set a target of $500m for annual bilateral trade, which is close to 10 times higher than the current levels.

Rather than major political or economic gains, Iran’s main takeaway from this success in the short term may be limited to a boost in prestige and diplomacy.

The main issue with Iran’s approach towards the SCO is that it looks at it as a “concert of non-Western great powers” rather than a modern international organisation, and views it in an anti-Western or anti-US setting, says Hamidreza Azizi, visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

“This is despite the fact that countries such as Pakistan and India are US’s close partners, and even Russia and China have never been willing to openly challenge the US on the global scene,” Azizi told Al Jazeera.

“The combination of these two misunderstandings, and also Iran’s self-perception as a natural hegemon in West Asia, would make the whole thing appear to the Iranian leaders as Iran joining other anti-Western great powers to form a strong coalition that is going to challenge the US hegemony.”

Azizi added that SCO members are reluctant to entangle themselves in Iran’s rivalries, which may be why, on Friday, they also admitted Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt as “dialogue partners” in a balancing effort.

From a diplomatic perspective, the approval is significant.

The country had been an “observer member” since 2005.

Last month, Iran’s security chief Ali Shamkhani announced on Twitter that the “political obstacles” to full membership were removed.

As well as in Farsi, he published the message in English, Arabic and Hebrew, signalling that it was also a message for the region and the West.

Iran’s previous bids for SCO membership were blocked because it was under United Nations sanctions, and some members, including Tajikistan, were against it due to Tehran’s perceived support for the Islamic Movement of Tajikistan.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/19/iran-shanghai-cooperation-organisation

 

I wonder if this haw anything to do with President Biden's UN speech today where he said the US would return to the Iran Nuclear Deal if Iran would. In fact I wonder if they have not resumed in New York.

New Iranian president calls for resumption of nuclear talks in UN speech


Recently elected Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for a resumption in nuclear talks in a pre-recorded address given at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

"The Islamic Republic considers the useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions," Raisi said, as Reuters reported.

Nuclear talks among Tehran negotiators and world powers in Vienna adjourned in June. The U.S. has so far not reengaged directly with the negotiations, instead participating indirectly through allies.

Washington wants Tehran to reenter into the terms of the deal before moving forward, but the Iranians counter that U.S. sanctions must be lifted before they will be willing to return to the Obama-era accord.

Raisi won the Iranian presidential election shortly the talks were adjourned.

The state of ongoing negotiations was left up in the air following his election. The new Iranian president is known for being an ardent critic of the West and has been sanctioned by the U.S. for alleged human right abuses when he was a judge.

Earlier this month, Raisi had indicated that Iran was prepared to rejoin nuclear negotiations.

"The Westerners and the Americans are after talks together with pressure ... What kind of talks is that? I have already announced that we will have talks on our government's agenda but not with ... pressure," Raisi on state television.

"Talks are on the agenda ... We are seeking goal-oriented negotiations ... so unjust sanctions on the Iranian people are lifted ... and their lives can flourish," he added.

When reached for comment by The Washington Post, a State Department official said the U.S. does not "have a timetable" on rejoining negotiations, but added that "our position is that we’re ready to go back."

However, the State official warned that eventually restarting negotiations "won’t be possible any more, because their nuclear advances will become irreversible, and it simply will not be feasible to go back the deal."

https://thehill.com/policy/internat...new-iranian-president-calls-for-resumption-of

 

Iran talks. Hopes for a renewed Iran nuclear deal were boosted on Tuesday after an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said that talks in Vienna would resume “soon” some time “over the next few weeks,” in remarks reported by Iranian news agency IRNA.

The announcement comes as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian meets with his counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia during this week’s U.N. General Assembly. President Ebrahim Raisi, in his address to the assembly on Tuesday, decried U.S. sanctions as Washington’s “new way of war,” but said talks were valuable if they led to their removal.

Foreign Policy Morning Brief

 

Oh goody!
Wonder how much biden/harris will spend on this boondoggle?