The European Union announced that negotiations to revive the Iranian nuclear agreement had reached a “stalemate”, and two-thirds of the members of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, which is composed of 35 member states, supported a non-binding statement put forward by Western parties that pressured Iran to explain why there were traces of uranium in 3 undeclared sites. .
“I am afraid that with the political situation in the United States … we will remain in a dead end,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told AFP on Wednesday.
Borrell added that the “final” text he presented last month for the proposed agreement was “the best point of balance between everyone’s positions”, and that the proposals had been close in the past two months, but following the summer they became far apart, as he described it.
“The recent proposals from the Iranians were not useful because we were close to reaching an agreement, then new proposals came and the political environment was not the most favorable. I regret to say that I do not expect any breakthrough in the coming days,” he added.
Borrell stressed that there is no solution that can be proposed to break the impasse, adding, “For my part, I have nothing else to suggest.”
Paris, London and Berlin issued a statement last week expressing “serious doubts” regarding Iran’s sincerity in seeking an agreement on its nuclear program, while Tehran considered the joint declaration “unconstructive” and “regrettable.”
Negotiations stumbled following Iran insisted on closing the file of investigations conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
International Atomic Energy Agency
In this context, a statement presented by Germany at the IAEA Board of Governors said, “We call on Iran to act immediately to fulfill its legal obligations and to accept the IAEA Director General’s offer without delay, for further communication to clarify and resolve outstanding issues.”
A list of countries supporting the statement presented by Germany showed that 23 countries in the council supported it, led by the United States, Britain and France, compared to 12 countries that did not support it, including Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Senegal and Vietnam.
This resolution requires Iran to provide an explanation for the reason for the presence of traces of uranium at 3 undeclared nuclear sites, as the Agency’s Board of Governors had previously passed a resolution at the previous quarterly meeting last June, expressing “deep concern” regarding the failure to provide an explanation for the presence of these traces. Because of the lack of sufficient cooperation on the part of Iran.
Instead of issuing a new resolution at the Council meeting this week, the countries that were behind the issuance of the resolution last June issued a joint statement re-emphasizing support for that resolution and seeking to mobilize the support of the largest number of countries for that.
