There are conflicting reports from Vienna, some of them paint an optimistic picture and others say that the negotiating process is facing an impasse because the Iranian side is demanding the lifting of all sanctions imposed on it, a position that the administration of US President Joe Biden continues to reject so far.
Commenting on the American position on the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear file, Vali Nasser, professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, believes that the Biden administration lost valuable and important time on the issue of Iran, and it should have dealt with the file more quickly. Biden has chosen to let Iran suffer from sanctions until it brings itself into negotiations over its nuclear program.
While he talked about challenges and internal pressures facing Biden, the professor of international affairs noted - in his speech to episode (02/12/2021) of the "From Washington" program - that the Democratic president wants an agreement with Iran because he seeks to encourage it to abandon its nuclear program, as well as He does not want a war in the Middle East and seeks to focus attention on China.
However, the American guest indicated that Biden is not free to provide the guarantee that Iran demands, related to a pledge that no other American president will come and cancel any agreement that can be reached on its nuclear program, as did former President Donald Trump, who withdrew from the 2015 agreement concluded with Tehran. The United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany.
For his part, the former commander of the US Central Command, Admiral William Fallen, talks about the hostility that exists between Washington and Tehran, and about the opposition of some Americans to the agreement concluded with Iran in the past regarding its nuclear file, for several reasons, most notably that Iran was on its way to developing ballistic missiles and developing its nuclear program. But the guest stressed the need for the two countries to sit down in order to build confidence in their relations.
Iran wants sanctions lifted
As for the former US diplomat and expert in US-Arab relations, Moufid Al-Deek, he asserts that the Biden administration views the Iranian nuclear file as related to US national security, and it is currently engaged in a very difficult battle, because Iran has managed to form regional and international alliances and developed its nuclear capabilities.
According to Al-Deek, Iran is coming to the seventh round of the Vienna negotiations and is in a stronger position than Biden's. There is an Iranian-Gulf rapprochement in exchange for tension between Washington, China and Russia, in addition to that Iran has advanced in terms of uranium enrichment, and is going to negotiations under an Iranian government. Tougher, and with a different negotiating team than the previous team.
And Iran wants - continues Al-Deek - to have US and international sanctions lifted from it, and to get out of the international isolation imposed on it by previous US administrations.
The former head of the US Republican Party in Michigan, Saul Anyusis, believes that no one threatens Iran, and it is the one who creates the problems, and stresses that no one wants another war in the Middle East, but he believes that military options can be on the table.
It is reported that 25 Republican members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden, in which they pledged to block any attempt to ease sanctions on Iran.