It is a seemingly technical measure but it is also a notable gesture towards Tehran at a time when negotiations to save the Iranian nuclear agreement are entering the final stretch.
Without an official announcement, Joe Biden’s government reinstated key waivers that shielded foreign countries and companies involved in civilian nuclear projects in Iran from the threat of US sanctions. These exemptions had been canceled under the presidency of Donald Trump.
“We have decided to reinstate a sanctions waiver to allow external participation” in order to guarantee the “non-proliferation”because of “growing concerns” created by the continuous development of Iranian nuclear activities, confirmed on Friday February 4 a senior American official interviewed by Agence France-Presse
This decision should also allow “facilitate” from “technical talk” which are “necessary in the last weeks of the talks”he added, establishing a direct link with the negotiations which must resume in the coming days with Tehran and the other major powers.
“The waiver itself would be essential to ensure Iran’s prompt compliance with its nuclear commitments” in the event of a compromise in Vienna, where the negotiations are being held, he added. But even without an agreement in the Austrian capital, “These technical discussions will still contribute to fulfilling our non-proliferation objectives”he assured.
Setback under Donald Trump
However, Washington ensures that it “this is not a concession to Iran” nor of one “signal that we are close to reaching an agreement” to save the 2015 agreement supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring the atomic bomb. “We have not granted sanctions relief to Iran and we will not do so until Tehran meets its commitments under the JCPOA [acronyme anglais de l’accord, ndlr] », later tweeted State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Donald Trump, who in 2018 withdrew the United States from this agreement and restored most of the American economic sanctions against Tehran as part of a campaign of “maximum pressure”had first regularly extended these derogations, also invoking the need to “reducing the risk of proliferation”.
But in May 2020, when he failed to bend the Islamic Republic to obtain a “best deal”, his government ended up abolishing these derogations. Europeans had “deeply regretted” this decision, considering that it suppressed “guarantees” on nature “peaceful” of the Iranian program.
The derogations concern in particular the Tehran reactor intended for research, as well as the heavy water reactor of Arak, modified under the control of the international community in such a way as to make it impossible to produce plutonium for military use.
In response to US sanctions since 2018, the Iranian authorities have gradually freed themselves from the restrictions imposed by the agreement on their nuclear activities, so much so that they are now, according to experts, only a few weeks away from have enough fissile material to make an atomic weapon.
Revert to 2015 agreement
President Biden wants to revert to the 2015 deal to ensure that Iranian activities remain strictly civil and peaceful, provided Iran also returns to its commitments. According to Barbara Slavin, Iran specialist at the Atlantic Council think tank, the return of derogations is “a precondition for the restoration of the agreement” and “so a good signal that it is possible to achieve it”.
The negotiations underway since last spring in Vienna aim to find a compromise on this mutual return. The talks, coordinated by the European Union, are taking place between the Iranians and the other signatory countries to the agreement (Germany, China, France, the United Kingdom and Russia), with only indirect participation from the Americans.
After months of deadlock, progress has been made in recent weeks. Discussions were suspended last week and are due to resume in the coming days. It’s time for “political decisions” to reach an agreement, warned several negotiators, stressing that only a handful of weeks remained to avoid a failure of diplomacy and the recourse by Washington or Israel to other options, including military ones, which could cause tensions to escalate.