Responding to EU nuclear draft, Iran seeks US flexibility

Iran responded to the European Union’s “final” draft text to save a 2015 nuclear deal on Monday, an EU official said, as the Iranian foreign minister called on the United States to show flexibility to resolve three remaining issues.

While Washington has said, per Reuters, it is ready to quickly seal a deal to restore the 2015 accord on the basis of the EU proposals, Iranian negotiators said Tehran’s “additional views and considerations” to the EU text would be conveyed later.

The EU official on Monday provided no details on Iran’s response to the text. “There are three issues that if resolved, we can reach an agreement in the coming days,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said earlier on Monday, suggesting Tehran’s response would not be a final acceptance or rejection.

The Iranian policymaker also said, “We have told them that our red lines should be respected … We have shown enough flexibility … We do not want to reach a deal that after 40 days, two months or three months fails to be materialised on the ground.”

The 2015 agreement appeared on the verge of revival in March after 11 months of indirect talks between Tehran and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration in Vienna.

But talks broke down over obstacles including Tehran’s demand that Washington provide guarantees that no U.S. president would abandon the deal as Trump did

Biden cannot promise this because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding, not a legally binding treaty. Given the lack of clear response from the European Union (EU), the news failed to garnet major attention.