(ThePatriotWire)- Tuesday, U.S. authorities informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran is not cooperating with the Biden administration’s risky attempt to resurrect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name for former President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement (JCPOA).
This pessimistic assessment was only the most recent of numerous indicators that the Iran nuclear deal would not survive, at least not until after the November elections in the United States.
The Biden administration officially informed the IAEA Board of Governors that Iran is not a willing partner.
The 35-nation Board of Governors expressed “deep worry” at their previous meeting in June on Iran’s unwillingness to cooperate with investigators and asked Iran to change its behavior “without delay.”
The United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany proposed a new resolution on Tuesday urging Tehran to “act immediately to fulfill its legal obligations” and “clarify and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues” after the IAEA reported on Tuesday that no progress had been made with Iran since then.
The finding of uranium particles at three unreported sites in Iran was foremost among those problems. The Israelis labeled one of these facilities as a “secret atomic warehouse” where nuclear weapons research was carried out in contravention of the JCPOA. Despite the Iranians’ claims that they are accommodating, they refuse to provide any information regarding these three locations.
On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that while it was willing to work with the IAEA, it also had “rights” that needed to be respected and “expects positive acts” in return.
According to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Iran is moving “backward,” which makes a renewed nuclear agreement “unlikely.”
He said that Iran continues to try to bring up unrelated problems in the negotiation that decrease the likelihood of an agreement, adding that they “seem either reluctant or incapable to do what is necessary to reach an agreement.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at a joint statement by the United States, France, and Germany, claiming that Iran has failed to finalize the nuclear deal on the table. The Iranians are enraged by U.S. penalties against Iran for providing drones to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine and conducting heinous cyberattacks against Iranian expatriate communities.
Diplomats said they thought the JCPOA would enter a “deep freeze” until after the U.S. midterm elections. No high-level talks with Iranian officials are scheduled for the foreseeable future.
A top Israeli official said the agreement is “dead” and that the United States and Europe should start negotiating a “longer, stronger” agreement.
