A day after Iran accepted the American response to Iran's latest proposals, which according to the leaks included some flexibility, it seems that Iran is once again raising the bar of its demands.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amri Abdulkhian told reporters today (Thursday) that his country is "examining in depth" the American response that came yesterday through the European Union, the official mediator of the eighth round of the nuclear talks that have been officially held in Vienna for eight months.
Although Abdulkhian did not give an official answer, he did announce what Iran would rule out outright - the continuation of the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigations into Iran's suspected activity at undeclared sites, which teach about alleged violations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or about a military nuclear program.
According to him, "We are very serious regarding the continuation of the investigations and we will not agree in any way that the IAEA's baseless and political accusations against Iran will remain in the event that all parties return to the nuclear agreement."
In doing so, he actually contradicted CNN's report from earlier this week that Iran no longer insists on closing the files, which also include questions surrounding uranium remains at sites in Iran in 2019 following Israel's revelations.
#Iran FM: We're carefully analyzing US response & the latest text.
We're very serious about remaining safeguards issues & we're not willing in any way to allow some political & baseless accusations of IAEA against Iran to remain, in a situation where all parties return to #JCPOA.
pic.twitter.com/eprzsoHDKL
— Abas Aslani (@AbasAslani) August 25, 2022
During the past week, reports surfaced that the Europeans had formulated a compromise according to which the agreement would not officially require the closure of the files (because in any case the IAEA is not subject to the powers), but its actual implementation would be conditioned on the closure of the files. It is possible that the latest words of the foreign minister indicate that the nuclear agreement A new one, even if successfully completed in the current round of talks, will not enter into force as long as the IAEA files are open.
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