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US responds to Iran nuclear deal as momentum builds

#responds #Iran #nuclear #deal #momentum #builds

The United States on Wednesday responded to Iran’s proposals to revive a 2015 nuclear deal as momentum builds to bring back the landmark deal destroyed by former President Donald Trump.

On August 8, just weeks after the deal looked dead, the European Union presented what it called final text restoring the deal, in which Iran sees sanctions relief and its oil back in exchange for severe restrictions on its nuclear power could sell program.

Iran came back last week with a raft of proposed amendments, to which the United States officially responded on Wednesday, a day after Tehran accused its nemesis of blocking.

Iran, the United States, and the European Union all confirmed the US response, but none immediately discussed it in depth.

“As you know, we have received Iran’s comments on the proposed EU final text through the EU,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

“Our review of these comments is now complete. We responded to the EU today.”

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Tehran received the response “on the outstanding issues in the negotiations to lift sanctions” from the European Union late Wednesday local time.

“The process of due diligence on US opinions has begun and the Islamic Republic of Iran will provide its opinions in this regard to the Coordinator after completing its review,” Kanani added.

Amid signs the deal is nearing the finish line, Iran’s arch-rival Israel has ramped up pressure on Western nations to block it.

“There is a bad deal on the table at the moment. It would bring Iran $100 billion a year,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid told reporters on Wednesday.

The money would be used by Iran-backed militant groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad to “undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terror around the world,” he added.

However, Lapid has pledged to maintain cooperation with the United States, Israel’s key ally, and has avoided the confrontational stance of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who openly joined then-President Barack Obama’s Republican rivals in fighting the deal, when it was achieved.

Israel’s National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata held talks in Washington. His counterpart Jake Sullivan told him Tuesday that the United States is committed to “maintaining and strengthening” Israel’s defenses and “ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.”

– Syria strikes —

President Joe Biden took office with the goal of restoring the deal, believing it was the best way to curtail Iran’s nuclear program and that Trump’s withdrawal had done nothing other than get Iran to stop its nuclear work to accelerate.

But a year and a half of diplomacy slowly dragged on in Vienna, where Iran has been pushing hard, insisting it only deal indirectly with US envoy Rob Malley, with EU mediators shuttled between hotels.

With Israel, the US Republicans and some Iranian hardliners adamantly opposed to the deal, both Washington and Tehran have gone into slingshot mode to offer concessions to the other side.

The United States says Iran has relented on a key sticking point – that Biden has undone Trump’s blacklisting of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group.

Biden refused to do so, and only on Tuesday ordered airstrikes in Syria allegedly targeting paramilitary militants linked to the Revolutionary Guards, the clerical regime’s elite ideological unit.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the attacks destroyed infrastructure including ammunition dumps to avoid attacks on the small contingent of US troops in Syria, observed August 15.

CENTCOM said it deliberately avoided casualties. Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack as “terrorist” and denied that the target groups were linked to Tehran.

According to a supposed compromise worked out by the European Union, the United States will retain the terror designation but limit action against external actors linked to the Revolutionary Guards, which have a major impact on Iran’s economy.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hinted in an interview with Spanish TV on Tuesday that other nations in the deal – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – are sympathetic to Iran’s proposals.

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