Still no resumption of negotiations on Iranian nuclear power, two and a half months after the election to the presidency of Iran of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi.

Worried, France, one of the main players in these talks, began on Wednesday September 1 to send signals to Tehran.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke by telephone with his new Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

He invited him to resume without delay the cycle of discussions "in order to allow a return to the full implementation of the Vienna nuclear agreement of 2015".

Jean-Yves Le Drian also expressed France's concern "vis-à-vis all nuclear activities conducted by Iran in violation of this agreement," he told the resulting from this telephone interview.

For its part, Tehran is asking for a little time.

The new head of Iranian diplomacy has hinted that these discussions, postponed on June 20, two days after the victory of Ebrahim Raïssi, might not resume for two or three months, the time "necessary for the new government to settle down. put in place and make any decision ".

60% uranium enrichment

Six rounds of negotiations between Iran and international powers took place in Vienna between April and June, in an attempt to salvage the deal.

These talks aimed to reintegrate the United States into this text, denounced in May 2018 by former US President Donald Trump, and to bring Iran back to full compliance with its international commitments regarding its nuclear program.

Time is running out because Tehran has put in place a new process to speed up its production rate of highly enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) noted on August 17.

Iran began in mid-April to enrich uranium to 60%, against 20% previously.

A threshold that goes well beyond the limit of 3.67% set by the Vienna Agreement.

The more the months pass, the more the Islamic Republic moves up the stages towards the capacity of manufacture of a bomb, for which the enrichment must be pushed up to 90%, even if many other steps are necessary.

In this context, the signing of an agreement aimed at limiting the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for a reduction in international sanctions becomes urgent.

Especially since the diplomats separated on June 20 without concrete progress.

An anti-Western leader of Iranian diplomacy

Some experts thought that the Iranian and Western teams would resume discussions during the summer in order to sign an agreement before the very anti-Western Ebrahim Raïssi came to power in Tehran, but their hopes were dashed.

From now on, a new Minister of Foreign Affairs has taken office and he is in no way like his predecessor.

Mohammad Javad Zarif was a fine diplomat with a warm face, having studied at university in the United States, and a follower of tweets in English.

Above all, he was considered favorable to rapprochement with the West.

After his dismissal by Mohammad Javad Zarif, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian served as international affairs adviser to the Iranian parliament.

© AFP (archives)

The anti-Western Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is a pure product of the Islamic Republic and he is known to be very close to the al-Quds Force, in charge of the external operations of the Revolutionary Guards and formerly led by General Qassem Soleimani.

As deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab and African affairs under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), he was often described as the representative of this ideological army within the ministry.

When the moderate Hassan Rohani took over the presidency in 2013, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian remained in office, before being sacked by Mohammad Javad Zarif in 2016. The two men hardly liked each other.

With the appointment of this tough head of Iranian diplomacy, the tone of future negotiations in Vienna looks very different.

With AFP

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