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RFI \u2014 The Biden administration lashed out at Iran on Saturday after it accused the US of delaying a proposed prisoner swap to force a quick resumption of indirect nuclear talks.\nAdvertising<\/p>\n
RFI \u2014 The Biden administration lashed out at Iran on Saturday after it accused the US of delaying a proposed prisoner swap to force a quick resumption of indirect nuclear talks.
\nAdvertising<\/p>\n
The State Department slammed as \u201coutrageous\u201d comments made by Iran\u2019s deputy foreign minister who alleged the U.S. and Britain were holding the swap \u201chostage\u201d to the negotiations over salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.<\/p>\n
In a thread of tweets from his verified account, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said the nuclear talks in Vienna could not resume until Iran\u2019s hardline president-elect is inaugurated in early August.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a transition period as a democratic transfer of power is underway in our capital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The nuclear talks \u201cmust thus obviously await our new administration. This is what every democracy demands,\u201d Aragchi said.<\/p>\n
He added that the U.S. and Britain \u201cneed to understand this and stop linking a humanitarian exchange \u2014 ready to be implemented \u2014 with the JCPOA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeping such an exchange hostage to political aims achieves neither,\u201d said Aragchi who is Iran’s chief negotiator at the Vienna talks. \u201cTEN PRISONERS on all sides may be released TOMORROW if US&UK fulfill their part of deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nuclear talks<\/p>\n
A sixth round of nuclear talks ended last month without agreement ahead of Iran’s presidential election won by Ebrahim Raisi. The US has repeatedly said it is ready for a seventh round as soon as Iran is ready while also calling for the immediate release of American citizens detained in Iran.<\/p>\n
In response to Aragchi’s remarks, State Department spokesman Ned Price categorically rejected the claim, denied there was already an agreement on a swap, and said the U.S. was prepared to continue talks on prisoners even while waiting for the resumption of the nuclear negotiations.
\nIn this June 21, 2021, photo, Iran’s new President-elect Ebrahim Raisi waves at the conclusion of his news conference in Tehran, Iran. Biden administration officials are insisting that the election of a hard-liner as Iran\u2019s president won\u2019t affect prospects for reviving the faltering 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. But there are already signs that their goal of locking in a deal just got harder. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)
\nIn this June 21, 2021, photo, Iran’s new President-elect Ebrahim Raisi waves at the conclusion of his news conference in Tehran, Iran. Biden administration officials are insisting that the election of a hard-liner as Iran\u2019s president won\u2019t affect prospects for reviving the faltering 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. But there are already signs that their goal of locking in a deal just got harder. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi) AP – Vahid Salemi<\/p>\n
\u201cThese comments are an outrageous effort to deflect blame for the current impasse on a potential mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA,\u201d Price said. \u201cWe stand ready to return to Vienna to complete work on a mutual return to the JCPOA once Iran has made the necessary decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Cruel effort”<\/p>\n
Price called Aragchi’s reference to the possible imminent release of 10 prisoners on all sides \u201cjust another cruel effort to raise the hopes of their families.\u201d \u201cIf Iran were truly interested in making a humanitarian gesture, it would simply release the detainees immediately,” he said.<\/p>\n
Price did not address Aragchi’s claim that Iran is in the midst of a \u201cdemocratic transfer of power\u201d but he did decry his reference to the U.S. and Britain holding the prisoner exchange \u201chostage.” He said it is the Iranian government \u201dthat has been unjustly detaining four innocent Americans for years.”<\/p>\n
Price said indirect talks on the detainees had been progressing in the context of the Vienna nuclear negotiations and the \u201cdelay in restarting that process is not helping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump’s withdrawal from nuclear deal<\/p>\n
But, while he said the US believed the prisoner talks would be more effective in that context, he added that \u201cwe are also prepared to continue with talks on detainees during\u201d the current hiatus.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration has been trying to reverse former President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear deal and has offered sanctions relief in exchange for Iran returning to full compliance with its obligations.<\/p>\n
As the Trump administration stepped up its \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign against Iran by re-imposing sanctions that had lifted under the initial deal, Iran stepped up its violations of the agreement by running advanced centrifuges and increasing uranium enrichment and heavy water production. It has also refused to answer questions from the UN’s atomic watchdog about potential violations of other nuclear commitments.<\/p>\n
On 12 July, Saeed Khatibzadeh, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said that “relatively good progress had been made” in the latest round of Vienna talks, but reiterated that the US “must lift” its sanctions before any agreement can be reached. On a possible exchange of US and Iranian prisoners held by Tehran and Washington, he said that “negotiations are underway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RFI \u2014 The Biden administration lashed out at Iran on Saturday after it accused the US of delaying a proposed prisoner swap to force a quick resumption of indirect nuclear talks. Advertising The State Department slammed as \u201coutrageous\u201d comments made by Iran\u2019s deputy foreign minister who alleged the U.S. and Britain were holding the swap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96997","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":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96997","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=96997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97000,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96997\/revisions\/97000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}