PARIS: France warned Tuesday that further delays could stymie a revived nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran, with the West at loggerheads with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, while Washington said it would cede nothing to Moscow.
Moscow is a direct party — along with Britain, China, France and Germany — to the ongoing talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Washington is participating indirectly, as former president Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
“We are very close to a deal,” but Paris is “very worried about risks that further delays could weigh on the chances,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters in an apparent reference to Russia’s demands for extra guarantees.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has demanded written assurances from Washington that massive Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine will not affect its economic and military cooperation with Tehran.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said such demands are “irrelevant.”
Russia said Monday that all world powers must have “equal rights” if the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is revived.
Sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine “have nothing to do with the Iran nuclear deal,” Blinken said Sunday.
France “calls on all other parties to adopt a responsible approach,” the foreign ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday.
At a hearing on Capitol Hill later Tuesday, when asked if Washington had provided Moscow with the written guarantees requested, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland was clear: “No.”
“We’re not negotiating with Russia vis-a-vis Iran,” Nuland said. “Russia is trying to up the ante and broaden its demands with regard to the JCPOA and we are not playing ‘Let’s Make A Deal’.”
“There may be some in Russia seeking to get extra benefits for their cooperation and participation in seeking to get Iran back into the JCPOA, but they are not going to be successful,” she added.
Nuland told lawmakers that Russia has “relatively small trade relations” with Iran, and that its participation was more based on its own national security interests.
She said negotiators in Vienna had “nearly completed” a deal and rejected calls by some to halt talks because of the war in Ukraine.
“The last thing we need on top of Putin’s bloody war is a nuclear-armed Iran,” she said.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency meanwhile said that Tehran’s top negotiator Ali Bagheri would travel to Vienna early Wednesday “to continue the talks.”
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France says ‘worried’ about ‘delays’ to Iran nuclear deal
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France says ‘worried’ about ‘delays’ to Iran nuclear deal
- Iran’s official IRNA news agency said that Tehran’s top negotiator Ali Bagheri would travel to Vienna early Wednesday “to continue the talks”
Syrian army declares a closed military zone east of Aleppo as tensions rise with Kurds
ALEPPO, Syria: The Syrian army on Tuesday declared an area east of the northern city of Aleppo a “closed military zone,” potentially signaling another escalation between government forces and fighters with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Several days of clashes in the city of Aleppo last week that displaced tens of thousands of people came to an end over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud.
Since then, Syrian officials have accused the SDF of building up its forces near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 km (37 mi) east of Aleppo city, something the SDF denied.
State news agency SANA reported that the army had declared the area a closed military zone because of “continued mobilization” by the SDF “and because it serves as a launching point for Iranian suicide drones that have targeted the city of Aleppo.”
On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo governorate building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city. The SDF denied being behind the attack.
The army statement Tuesday said armed groups should withdraw to the area east of the Euphrates River.
The tensions come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.
The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkiye-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF has for years been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Daesh group, but Turkiye considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkiye. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration in the US has also developed close ties with Al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.
Shams TV, a station based in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, had been set to air an interview with Al-Sharaa on Monday but later announced it had been postponed for “technical” reasons without giving a new date for airing it.
Several days of clashes in the city of Aleppo last week that displaced tens of thousands of people came to an end over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud.
Since then, Syrian officials have accused the SDF of building up its forces near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 km (37 mi) east of Aleppo city, something the SDF denied.
State news agency SANA reported that the army had declared the area a closed military zone because of “continued mobilization” by the SDF “and because it serves as a launching point for Iranian suicide drones that have targeted the city of Aleppo.”
On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo governorate building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city. The SDF denied being behind the attack.
The army statement Tuesday said armed groups should withdraw to the area east of the Euphrates River.
The tensions come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.
The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkiye-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF has for years been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Daesh group, but Turkiye considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkiye. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration in the US has also developed close ties with Al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.
Shams TV, a station based in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, had been set to air an interview with Al-Sharaa on Monday but later announced it had been postponed for “technical” reasons without giving a new date for airing it.
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