Tehran under pressure as Iran nuclear deal reaches crunch point

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Tehran under pressure as Iran nuclear deal reaches crunch point

A breakthrough in the 2015 nuclear deal talks could be just days away, but key differences remain

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Wed 16 Feb 2022 20.29 GMT

Iran has reached a moment of truth and must decide in days, not weeks, whether to accept the text of a nuclear deal accepted by China, Russia, European powers and the US, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has said.

His claim that the text was now agreed, not just between western powers, but also Russia and China, is designed to put maximum pressure on Iran to accept the attempt to revive its landmark nuclear deal, by which it agreed to limit nuclear activity in return for the lifting of some sanctions.

Tehran’s negotiators have been holding out in recent weeks for the wider lifting of US economic sanctions and some form of political statement by the US Congress that it will not walk away from the deal as it did in 2018, only three years after it came into force.

“We have arrived at the hour of truth. It is not a question of weeks, it is a question of days. We have arrived at a point of sufficient convergence with the other countries, the accord is within reach,” Le Drian told the French Sénat on Wednesday.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/16/tehran-under-pressure-as-iran-nuclear-deal-reaches-crunch-point

[Marcuse]

1. Okaaaay.

and some form of political statement by the US Congress that it will not walk away from the deal as it did in 2018,