Return to the nuclear pact with Iran

The president of Iran, Hasan Rohaní.IRAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE / HANDO / EFE

• Iran approaches China to reinforce itself against the US

The resumption of talks on Iran's atomic program with the participation of the United States is very positive news.

Even if, for the moment, Iranians and Americans are not present at the same time in the same room, the meeting itself is an essential first step to recover the nuclear agreement that Washington abandoned during the term of Donald Trump.

But do not fall into optimism.

The task of getting the situation back on track is arduous, because circumstances have changed significantly since Iran and the great powers signed the historic nuclear agreement in 2015.

That treaty - which lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for it limiting its nuclear ambitions - always had detractors in the political elites of both the United States and Iran.

And although now President Joe Biden is trying to reverse the step backwards taken by Trump, in Tehran the tables have also turned, but just in the opposite direction.

Trump's fright not only reinforced the ultra-conservative Iranians opposed to any negotiation, but also left the more moderate or pragmatic sectors of the Ayatollah regime without arguments.

Hence the repeated statements these days by both the president, Hasan Rohaní, and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif - who were the architects of the agreement on the Iranian side - that there is nothing to negotiate, but that it is enough that Washington do your part to have them reverse the violations of the agreement that Tehran has since responded to.

Now, in addition, there are circumstances that go beyond the specificity of the treaty itself.

Iran faces a presidential election in June, and although it is far from being a democratic system, it is also experiencing its dose of internal political struggle.

The ultra-conservatives, who hope to win in part because of the trump card that the pact fiasco gave them, want to avoid a diplomatic triumph of their moderate rivals now in power.

On the US side, the goal - and the demand of its allies, both Israel and the Arab monarchies - is to expand the pact both temporarily and in scope.

Those in the region who opposed the 2015 signing continue to fear that the funds released will allow Iran to strengthen its missile program and support different paramilitary groups.

The road, then, is difficult.

But the pact offers a better way to control nuclear ambitions than the current situation, with fewer inspection tools, and a Tehran devoted to the support provided by China, above all, and Russia.

It is therefore necessary to resume that path, accepting that perhaps the only way is to take small steps with which to reverse the current deterioration of the treaty.

The EU would do well to work in that direction.