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.”
France says ‘worried’ about ‘delays’ to Iran nuclear deal
https://arab.news/cq9en
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”
Turkiye detains 110 suspects in operation targeting Daesh after deadly clash
- In Tuesday’s operation, police carried out raids on 114 addresses in Istanbul and two other provinces, arresting 110 of the total 115 suspects that they sought
ISTANBUL: Turkish police detained 110 suspects in an operation against Daesh on Tuesday, a day after three police officers and six militants were killed in a gunfight in northwest Turkiye, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said.
Police conducted an eight-hour siege at a house in the town of Yalova, on the Sea of Marmara coast south of Istanbul, a week after more than 100 suspected Daesh members were detained in connection with alleged plans to carry out Christmas and New Year attacks. Eight police officers and another security force member were wounded in the raid on the property, which was one of more than 100 addresses targeted by authorities on Monday.
In Tuesday’s operation, police carried out raids on 114 addresses in Istanbul and two other provinces, arresting 110 of the total 115 suspects that they sought, the prosecutor’s statement said. It said various digital materials and documents were seized.
Turkiye has stepped up operations against suspected Daesh militants this year, as the group returns to prominence globally. The US carried out a strike against the militants in northwest Nigeria last week, while two gunmen who attacked a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach this month appeared to be inspired by Daesh, Australian police have said. On December 19, the US military launched strikes against dozens of Daesh targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on American personnel.
Almost a decade ago, the jihadist group was blamed for a series of attacks on civilian targets in Turkiye, including gun attacks on an Istanbul nightclub and the city’s main airport, killing dozens of people. Turkiye was a key transit point for foreign fighters, including those of Daesh, entering and leaving Syria during the war there.
Police have carried out regular operations against the group in subsequent years and there have been few attacks since the wave of violence between 2015-2017.
