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VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. optimism that a deal to restore the 2015 agreement to limit Iran\u2019s nuclear developed has soured, with the State Department warning Tuesday it was headed toward \u201cPlan B\u201d if Tehran doesn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n
Just a week ago Washington officials were hopeful that an agreement that aimed to halt Iran\u2019s march toward nuclear weapons capability, after almost one year of negotiations, was within reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are close to a possible deal, but we\u2019re not there yet,\u201d State Department spokesman Ned Price said on March 16. \u201cWe do think the remaining issues can be bridged.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. officials said they thought Tehran would reach an agreement after Sunday\u2019s celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year.<\/p>\n
Mood shift<\/strong><\/p>\n But that tone suddenly changed the following day.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be clear that an agreement is neither imminent nor is it certain,\u201d Price said Monday.<\/p>\n And on Tuesday, while refusing to say the talks had reached an impasse, Price said the United States had contingency plans if a deal could not be reached and Iran’s alleged plans to develop nuclear weapons were not halted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe onus is on Tehran to make decisions that it might consider difficult,\u201d Price told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, we are preparing equally for scenarios with and without a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA,\u201d he said, referring to the formal name of the 2015 deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.<\/p>\n The administration of President Donald Trump unilaterally abrogated the six-party JCPOA in 2018, accusing Tehran of violating its terms and branding it a weak deal.<\/p>\n Experts said Iran had mostly stuck to the terms, but months after the U.S. pullout, the Islamic republic began ramping up its nuclear program with activities that would enhance its ability to build a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n Last April, three months after he took office, President Joe Biden started new negotiations to revive the 2015 agreement, promising an easing of punishing sanctions in exchange for restoring JCPOA controls.<\/p>\n But the talks have proceeded with the knowledge that Tehran has already moved much closer to nuclear weapons \u201cbreakout,\u201d which would render the JCPOA moot.<\/p>\n Political choices<\/strong><\/p>\n Both sides have said in recent weeks that the other has to make tough political choices.<\/p>\n And Tehran is believed to be holding out for two objectives: a guarantee of some protection if the United States again pulls out from the deal, and the removal of Washington\u2019s official \u201cForeign Terrorist Organization\u201d designation of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still working through a number of difficult issues,\u201d Price said, while not confirming what the specific unagreed points were.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that there has to be a great deal of urgency, and we know that now the onus is on Tehran to make decisions,” he said.<\/p>\n Suggesting that Washington has not given up, Price did say Monday that it could make concessions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are prepared to make difficult decisions to return Iran\u2019s nuclear program to its JCPOA limits,\u201d he said. But he also warned that Washington is conferring with allies on what to do if no deal is reached, without providing details.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are preparing… for a world in which we have a JCPOA and a world in which we don\u2019t. But either way, the president\u2019s commitment to the fact that Iran will never be able to acquire a nuclear weapon, that is ironclad.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Walk away\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet even as the United States pressures Iran to give in, it is facing challenges from conservatives domestically against a possible deal.<\/p>\n After a briefing Tuesday from the State Department\u2019s main JCPOA negotiator Rob Malley, senior Republican Senator Jim Risch lashed out.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m appalled at the concessions this administration is considering to placate the Iranian regime,\u201d he said, calling on Biden to \u201cwalk away\u201d from the talks.<\/p>\n \u201cA deal that provides $90-$130 billion in sanctions relief, relieves sanctions against Iran\u2019s worst terror and human rights offenders, and delists the IRGC does not support our national security interests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Democrat Chris Murphy said a deal would be positive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe intel on how close Iran is to a nuclear weapon is chilling, and we have no reason to believe that there\u2019s a pathway other than diplomacy to extend their breakout time,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n He added that the terror group designation for the IRGC can be dropped because it \u201chas no practical impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. optimism that a deal to restore the 2015 agreement to limit Iran\u2019s nuclear developed has soured, with the State Department warning Tuesday it was headed toward \u201cPlan B\u201d if Tehran doesn\u2019t budge. Just a week ago Washington officials were hopeful that an agreement that aimed to halt Iran\u2019s march toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102466,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102462\/revisions\/102466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}