Iran Rejects Offer of Direct U.S. Nuclear Talks, Ratcheting Up Tension With West

With Tehran escalating its nuclear activities in recent months in breach of the 2015 nuclear deal, the U.S. conducting airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in Syria, and Iranian presidential elections in June, diplomats have warned that opportunities to ease tensions might now be imperiled.

Just 10 days ago, Western officials were hopeful that headway would soon be made toward relaunching the nuclear negotiations. The EU floated the idea of holding talks in Europe that would include all of the remaining participants in the 2015 deal—Iran plus China, the U.K., France, German, and Russia, as well as the U.S. The Biden administration immediately announced it would attend a meeting, with Washington’s envoy Rob Malley set to participate.

EU officials had been trying to get an agreement on dates for a meeting and had floated the possibility of talks in Vienna or Brussels in the coming days. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said last Monday that he was “reasonably optimistic” talks would happen. However, Iran this weekend sent a note saying it wouldn’t attend a meeting in the current circumstances.

“Given the recent moves and positions of the U.S. and the three European countries, the Islamic Republic doesn’t assess the timing of an informal meeting proposed by the EU coordinator as appropriate,” Saaed Khatibzadeh, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said. “The path ahead is very clear: The U.S. should end its illegal and unilateral sanctions and return to its JCPOA commitments.” He was referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is the formal name of the 2015 Iran accord.

Iran proposed a different approach in its latest discussions with the EU. Echoing an idea floated publicly in early February by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Tehran told the EU that it wants the EU to serve as a mediator, brokering a step-by-step process in which the U.S. and Iran would each agree to concessions before a possible meeting between Iranian officials and their U.S. counterparts, Western diplomats said.

A senior Biden administration official said the U.S. was disappointed that Tehran had rejected the EU proposal for a meeting at which Iran and the U.S. could have discussed initial steps to revive the 2015 deal. He said, however, that the U.S. would now consult with its European partners as well as Russia and China about how else Washington can pursue its diplomatic efforts. He declined to say whether the U.S. would accept the Iranian idea for an EU mediating role pending those consultations.

“It is unfortunate because that could have happened quickly. That was what was on the table,” the administration official said of the EU proposal. “We are not going to be dogmatic or sticklers for form. We want to make sure that whatever formal process is agreed is going to be effective.”

At stake are efforts by the EU to revive the 2015 nuclear deal from which the Trump administration withdrew and whose limits were subsequently breached by Iran. The revival of the deal would restore strict but temporary constraints on Iran’s nuclear activities and, U.S. and European officials have said, set the stage for negotiations on a longer follow-on accord that they believe should also include Iranian missiles. Both the Biden administration and Iran have said they want to restore the 2015 accord, but Iran has said it won’t renegotiate the deal.

“This is far from a death knell for negotiations,” said Henry Rome, senior Iran analyst at Eurasia Group in New York, a consulting firm. “But Iran’s decision underscores that reviving the deal will be messy…Washington and Tehran will zig and zag in efforts to build up leverage and handle their own domestic political considerations.”

Iran’s decision to stay away from talks for now comes ahead of what could be fresh tensions between Iran and the…