US envoy says west should be prepared for fully nuclear Iran amidst stalled JCPOA talks

US Special Representative to Iran, on Wednesday, admitted that the West must brace for a world in which Iran “doesn’t have constraints on its nuclear programme.” Speaking at an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Robert Malley asserted that while the Biden administration has offered to lift all sanctions on Iran and return back to square one, it is the Islamic Republic which now faces the choice between halting its nuclear programmes and “picking up a different path”. 

The US has made clear to Iran’s representatives that "we are prepared to remove all of the sanctions that were imposed by the Trump administration that were inconsistent with the [nuclear] deal, and therefore we could get back to the business that we should have been on.” “That’s where we are today, and I think that’s the choice that Iran faces. Are they prepared to go back to that or do they want to choose a different path?” Malley said. 

No direct communication 

He further said that despite Washington’s openness to revive the fraught talks, Iranians have refrained from having direct communication and have been managing everything through “intermediaries”. “It’s not a particularly constructive [format], it’s one that lends itself to delays, it’s one that lends itself to misunderstandings, and all of that has happened,” Malley said. His remarks come as Tehran recently showed a willingness to resume talks. 

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Blinken stressed that all parties involved in the deal have agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire a nuclear arsenal. Asserting that time was “running short”, he added that they were “getting closer to a point at which returning to compliance with the JCPOA will not in and of itself recapture the benefits of the JCPOA”. Under the deal, Tehran is obliged to scale back its nuclear or uranium enrichment program in exchange for promises of economic relief by the US and other parties. Previously, in a discreet statement, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that diplomacy is the best path to curb the expansion of Iranian Nuclear Programmes, reiterating President Joe Biden’s preference for negotiations over retaliatory actions.

Image: AP/USEnvoyIran/Twitter
(With Agency Inputs)