Iran on Sunday made an offer to negotiate directly with the United States in an informal meeting proposed by Europeans to reject the nuclear deal that President Donald J. Trump terminated nearly three years ago.
A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said recent actions by Washington and Europeans had led Iran to conclude that “the time was not right” to hold such talks. His remarks come days after President Biden ordered retaliatory attacks on military militias in eastern Syria linked to recent attacks on U.S. and allied personnel in Iraq.
“There is no change in America’s positions and actions,” he said. Khatibzadeh said in a statement from the Foreign Ministry. “The Biden government has not set aside Trump’s maximum pressure policy, nor has he announced his commitments,” according to the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Mr. Trump has failed.
Mr. Biden said the United States would return to the deal once Iran returned to the commitments it made when it was signed. Iran has demanded that the US lift all sanctions against it, and has recently taken steps to increase uranium enrichment and restrict the access of international inspectors to its nuclear sites.
The cul-de-sac asked European signatories to the agreement to propose an informal meeting in which the Americans would attend as guests and the two parties would have the opportunity to engage directly.
In private, U.S. officials expressed confidence that the timing issues could be resolved, noting that Iran and the United States, when the nuclear deal was launched in early 2016, undertook a series of precisely coordinated actions that eliminated the question of who was make the first move.
But the political sensitivity is high.
Mr. Biden is aware that Republican opponents of the agreement are looking for any signs that his new government is making concessions without getting anything back. And Iran has a presidential election in less than four months, which means there are no Iranian officials willing to bow to the US will.
So far, Mr. Bid a willingness to participate in diplomacy again, mixed with a modest military backlash to Iran’s support of proxy militias in Iraq and elsewhere.
The gestures of goodwill have led to the failure of the Trump administration’s failed attempt to abandon the re – imposition of the United Nations’ sanctions dating back to the 2015 agreement. Mr. Trump argued that since Iran has resumed nuclear material production at levels prohibited by the agreement, these sanctions should automatically re-emerge.
The State Department also facilitated travel restrictions on Iranian diplomats to come to the United Nations and Europe’s invitations to accept direct talks.
But then came the decision of mr. Pray to order military strikes on Thursday on several buildings used by Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and other groups in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. The strikes were in response to a rocket attack on February 15 in northern Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and members of coalition forces.
Mr. Biden said the strikes were aimed at sending a message to Iran that “you can not act with impunity – be careful.”
The growing military tension coincided with Iran weighing whether it would meet the Americans, an idea that is just as unpopular within the conservative groups of Iran as among many Republican leaders in the United States.
A White House spokesman said on Sunday that the United States was “disappointed” by Iran’s rejection of the talks, but that “we are still prepared to engage in meaningful diplomacy again,” Reuters reported.
Henry Rome, a senior analyst who follows Iran for the Eurasia Group, a political risk advisory firm, said Iran’s decision partly reflected its leaders’ desire in spite of US pressure.
“This is by no means a death knell for negotiations,” he said in an email.
In his remarks Sunday, Mr. Khatibzadeh said Iran would respond in kind to both Washington’s pressure and concessions.
According to him, Iran “will return to our obligations” with regard to sanctions. But he warned, it would also ‘respond to aggressive action’.
Mr. Rome said the absence makes clear how ‘messy’ the revival of the deal could be.
“Even if the general direction of the journey is clear,” he said, “Washington and Tehran will be furious in their efforts to build their own leveraged finances and address their own domestic political considerations.”
Rick Gladstone reported.