TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 A top Iranian official said Monday that his country is seeking \u201ccreative ways\u201d to restore its nuclear deal with world powers after Russia\u2019s foreign minister linked sanctions on Moscow over its war on Ukraine to the ongoing negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tweet by Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran\u2019s powerful Supreme National Security Council, offers the first high-level acknowledgment of the demands of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVienna participants act & react based on interests and it\u2019s understandable,\u201d Shamkhani wrote. \u201cOur interactions … are also solely driven by our people\u2019s interests. Thus, we\u2019re assessing new elements that bear on the negotiations and will accordingly seek creative ways to expedite a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shamkhani later tweeted criticism of the United States; earlier, he avoided directly mentioning Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent days, negotiators on all sides in Vienna had signaled that a potential deal was close as\u00a0the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agreed to a timetable with Iran for it to answer the watchdog\u2019s long-standing questions about Tehran\u2019s program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Lavrov on Saturday said he wanted \u201cguarantees at least at the level of the secretary of state\u201d that the U.S. sanctions would not affect Moscow\u2019s relationship with Tehran. That threw into question the months of negotiations held so far on restoring the 2015 deal, which saw Iran agree to drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Lavrov\u2019s demand \u201cirrelevant\u201d as the nuclear deal and sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine war were \u201ctotally different.\u201d The United States under then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018,\u00a0setting off years of tensions and attacks across the Mideast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGetting out of the deal was one of the worst mistakes that\u2019s been made in recent years. It let the entire Iranian nuclear program that we put in a box out of the box,\u201d Blinken told CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation\u201d talk show. \u201cAnd so if there\u2019s a way of getting back to reimplementing that deal effectively, it\u2019s in our interest to do it and we\u2019re working on that as we speak. It\u2019s also in Russia\u2019s interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking on Monday in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that \u201cpeaceful nuclear cooperation\u201d between China, Iran and Russia shouldn\u2019t be limited by sanctions. China and Russia are part of the deal, which also includes Germany, Britain and France. The U.S. has sat out of the talks since its withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo far Russia had shown a constructive approach for reaching a collective agreement in Vienna and we interpret what they say in this framework,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will wait for them to give us more details in Vienna.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added Iran and the U.S. continued to negotiate on a possible prisoner swap, like one that accompanied the earlier nuclear deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe remaining differences are less than fingers of a hand \u2014 if no one adds a new issue,\u201d Khatibzadeh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also weighed in, vowing that Tehran \u201cwill not allow any foreign factor to affect the national interests of the country in the Vienna talks,\u201d according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry said Amirabdollahian and Lavrov spoke by phone later Monday about the nuclear deal negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the state-owned, English-language Tehran Times newspaper on Monday published an article suggesting the draft nuclear deal in Vienna would allow Iran to \u201ckeep its advanced centrifuges and nuclear materials inside the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s \u201ca form of inherent guarantee to make sure that its nuclear program is fully reversible if the U.S. reneged on its commitments again,\u201d the newspaper said, without providing a source for the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2015 nuclear deal saw Iran put advanced centrifuges into storage under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency, while keeping its enrichment at 3.67% purity and its stockpile at only 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of uranium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Feb. 19,\u00a0the IAEA says Iran\u2019s stockpile of all enriched uranium\u00a0was nearly 3200 kilograms (7,055 pounds). Some has been enriched up to 60% purity \u2014 a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking from Vienna, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said any possible renewed nuclear deal would be a \u201cvery complex agreement\u201d with a number of steps and sequences. He also acknowledged his inspectors faced a challenging task filling in the gaps left by Iran holding IAEA surveillance tapes and limiting access amid the tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inspector have to make sure everything \u201cis perfectly accounted for to the gram,\u201d Grossi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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