WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has ordered his staff to prepare “additional measures” if troubled talks over Iran’s nuclear program, which resumed Thursday in Vienna, fail to reach a resolution.
“Given the ongoing advances in Iran’s nuclear program,, the president has asked his team to be prepared in the event that diplomacy fails and we must turn to other options,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
“If diplomacy cannot get on track soon and if Iran’s nuclear program continues to accelerate, then we will have no choice but to take additional measures to further restrict Iran’s revenue-producing sectors,” she added.
The latest round of talks began last week and were paused on Dec. 3 with Western participants accusing Iran of going back on progress made earlier this year.
International diplomats restarted the talks Thursday for what the chair of the negotiations called the “difficult endeavor” of reviving the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers.
The heads of delegations from the parties to the 2015 deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia — were present at the talks in Vienna.
An American delegation plans to take part indirectly in the coming days.
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that it will take a few days to judge whether Iran is showing flexibility in the talks.
“It will probably (be) another couple of days until we have sense of where the Iranians are in the context of the restart of this round and ... the flexibility that they may or may not be willing to show,” Price said.
Asked if Iran might be playing for time in the talks and seeking to exploit US weakness, he said: “I can assure you that if the Iranian regime suspects the United States of weakness, they will be sorely surprised.”
Price sought to deflect criticism that Iran has been stringing the major powers along in the negotiations while making advances to its nuclear program.
“We have been very clear that Iran will not be able to play for time, that Iran’s nuclear escalations and its provocations won’t give Iran any additional leverage in these negotiations,” he said.
“The only thing these provocations and these escalations will do is to bring us closer to the point of a potential crisis. And we are not looking for a crisis,” Price added, saying Washington wanted a diplomatic solution and that he hoped Iran was not looking for a crisis.
Former President Donald Trump’s decided to withdraw the US from the deal in 2018. Under the accord, Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.
(With AFP and Reuters)