TEHRAN: Iran said Monday it will not be rushed into a “quick” deal reviving its faltering 2015 nuclear accord with world powers, as negotiations remain deadlocked.
“They demand that Iran makes a quick decision, (insisting that) time is limited and Iran must respond quickly,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said at his weekly news conference, referring to Western parties to the nuclear deal.
Kanani said the Islamic republic will “not sacrifice the country’s fundamental interests... with a rushed process.”
It was being put under “psychological pressure and unilateral expectations,” he said.
But “if the US acts constructively and positively, an agreement is close,” Kanani said.
The 2015 agreement gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its atomic program to guarantee that it could not develop a nuclear weapon — something it has always denied seeking.
But the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and Washington’s reimposition of biting economic sanctions prompted Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments.
Talks in Vienna that started in April 2021 to restore the deal have stalled since March amid differences between Tehran and Washington on several issues.
The two sides negotiated indirectly through the European Union coordinator.
Qatar hosted indirect talks last month between the United States and Iran in a bid to get the Vienna process back on track, but those discussions broke up after two days without any breakthrough.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Iran “doesn’t seem to have made the political decision — or decisions, I should say — necessary to achieve a mutual return to compliance” with the deal.
France’s envoy to the UN, Nicolas de Riviere, in June urged Iran to “seize without further delay the offer on the table.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday told his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi that reviving the landmark deal was “still possible” but must happen “as soon as possible.”
Macron’s comments came after Britain’s spy chief voiced doubt that the deal can be revived, saying Iran’s supreme leader and ultimate decision-maker Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained opposed.
“I don’t think the supreme leader... wants to cut a deal. The Iranians won’t want to end the talks either so they could run on for a bit,” MI6 chief Richard Moore said late last week.
Iran says it won’t be rushed into ‘quick’ nuclear deal
https://arab.news/6jpqs
Iran says it won’t be rushed into ‘quick’ nuclear deal
- Kanani said the Islamic republic will “not sacrifice the country’s fundamental interests... with a rushed process”
- Qatar hosted indirect talks last month between the United States and Iran in a bid to get the Vienna process back on track
Iraq starts investigations into Daesh detainees moved from Syria
- Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters
- In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary announced on Monday it has begun its investigations into more than 1,300 Daesh group detainees who were transferred from Syria as part of a US operation.
“Investigation proceedings have started with 1,387 members of the Daesh terrorist organization who were recently transferred from the Syrian territory,” the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Under the supervision of the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, several judges specializing in counterterrorism started the investigation.”
Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.
They include Syrians, Iraqis and Europeans, among other nationalities, according to several Iraqi security sources.
In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected extremists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
Last month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria had largely expired, as Damascus pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF.
In Iraq, where many prisons are packed with Daesh suspects, courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including many foreign fighters.
Iraq’s judiciary said its investigation procedures “will comply with national laws and international standards.”
