Iran reaching no point of return: US envoy tells Manama Dialogue

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Tehran was approaching the point of no return for reviving a nuclear deal after it boosted its stocks of enriched uranium before talks resume this month, the US envoy for Iran told IISS Manama Dialogue yesterday.

Robert Malley said Iran risked making it “impossible” to gain any benefit from resuming the agreement, which has been on hold since then-president Donald Trump walked away in 2018.

“The time will come if Iran continues at this pace with the advancements they’ve made, (it) will make it impossible even if we were going to go back to the JCPOA to recapture the benefits,” Malley said in Bahrain.

“Iran’s advances are spreading alarm across the region... that’s what’s making the clock tick faster and making all of us say that the time is short for a return to the JCPOA,” Malley said.

“And I want to be clear, because there’s no ambiguity about what they seem to be doing now, which is to drag their feet on the nuclear talks and accelerate the progress in their nuclear programme.”

The US envoy said he was not encouraged by the statements from the new Iranian government of President Ebrahim Raisi, which earlier on Friday accused Washington of conducting a “propaganda campaign” against the country.

“If they stick to their public pronouncements, unfortunately, we’re not headed in the right direction... but let’s wait to see what happens,” he said, pledging that President Joe Biden would honour a revived deal.

“Our intent, our clear intent in coming back into the deal is to stick with the deal because we don’t want to see a nuclear crisis,” Malley said. Speaking before the start of the Dialogue, Malley said the US shared a “commonality of purpose” with rivals Russia and China “because we want to avoid that crisis, all of us, the crisis that would be sparked if Iran continues on its current path”.