As the sixth round of Vienna talks aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal ended in June, there were no public statements by senior US, European, German, Iranian and Russian diplomats about the negotiations. As everything showed, the talks were successful, but the rest of the decisions had to be made at the level of political leadership in each of their respective capitals. According to international analysts, Iran’s problem lies in its top diplomacy.
It is noteworthy that the then President of Iran Hassan Rohani stated at the time that the talks had progressed so far but there were no substantial obstacles left to restore the agreement. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, even offered a timeframe for reaching a final agreement: “We have every chance of reaching the final point of our negotiations, maybe even by mid-July, unless “Something extraordinary and negative is happening.”
“Certainly something extraordinary and negative seems to have unfolded — that is, the consequences of the election of Ebrahim Raisi as President of Iran,” he said. It is a given that key members of Raisi’s administration are certainly aware of the financial benefits of reviving the agreement. But it has become increasingly clear that Raisi’s appointments to the helm of Iran’s foreign policy apparatus are not in line with his stated goal of reviving the agreement diplomatically.
Initially, the new Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has at times espoused misconceptions about the 2015 agreement and the way the EU-US had discussed it under the agreement. Since the beginning of his term, he has issued several confused statements about the resumption of talks, which, however, are refuted by the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The confusion later escalated when Amir-Abdollahian proposed to the Biden government to thaw $ 10 billion in Iranian money before returning Iran to the talks. But more than the confusion of world powers over Iran’s intentions, the statements revealed the minister’s lack of understanding of US domestic policy and how it limits the range of possible measures that US President Joe can realistically take. Biden to save the deal. Such remarks have even angered other parties to the agreement. Even the Russians, Iran’s supposed allies, could not help but ridicule the “confused language” used by the new minister.
One has to wonder whether this foreign policy of the country has the sensitivity, diplomatic finesse and technocratic know-how required for a project as complex and delicate as the revitalization of the nuclear deal. And Iran’s diplomatic maneuverability is further undermined by other restrictions that have less to do with the Raisi government and more with the man at the top of Iran’s power structure, Khamenei.
For example, Khamenei has barred Iranian negotiators from meeting directly with their US counterparts. This long-term policy is not only unnecessary, but also serves to curb Iranian diplomacy. According to those familiar with the negotiations, the ban simply slowed down the process and increased the likelihood of misunderstandings between the various parties, thus undermining Iran’s goal of lifting sanctions. He sees Tehran as a rigid party that is more interested in wandering around and testing the patience of other parties than in reaching a compromise.
Foreign Policy
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