South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and U.S. President Joe Biden hold a joint news conference after their summit at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 26, 2023..(Yonhap/IANS)
The US and South Korea jointly issued the Washington Declaration on April 26 as one of the outcomes of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s visit to the US.
The recent nuclear agreement reached by the US and South Korea will have a negative effect on regional security and undermine global stability, said the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“We took note of reports on an agreement that was reached between the US and the ROK (the Republic of Korea) on joint planning with regard to the use of nuclear weapons,” said the Ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, in a statement on Friday.
“This development is clearly destabilising… and will have serious negative consequences for regional security and will impact global stability,” the statement added.
According to the statement, by committing to policies of “extended nuclear deterrence,” the US and its allies are duplicating schemes that Washington has been practicing for decades following the Cold War, and still practices with its NATO allies.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. (Credit: Twitter/ @mfa_russia)
It added that such practices will ultimately undermine international security, lead to a further escalation of tensions, spur security crises, and provoke an arms race, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We call on the US and its allies…to refrain from steps that lead to the weakening of the overall level of security for all states,” said the statement.
The US and South Korea jointly issued the Washington Declaration on April 26 as one of the outcomes of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s visit to the US.
According to reports, the declaration says that the US will upgrade the extended deterrence it provides to South Korea, including enhanced consultation over a nuclear crisis, increased military exercises and training activities, table-top simulation, the establishment of a new Nuclear Consultative Group, and a further expansion of the US regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.
The sanctions must be removed in a way to benefit the Iranian people and enable the country’s traders and businessmen to conduct transactions with other countries, said Abolfazl Amoui…reports Asian Lite News
An Iranian parliament committee has said that the talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal must result in the removal of US sanctions in a way to safeguard Iran’s economic interests.
Abolfazl Amoui, spokesman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, made the remarks after a committee meeting held to evaluate the latest round of the nuclear talks in Vienna, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA).
The sanctions must be removed in a way to benefit the Iranian people and enable the country’s traders and businessmen to conduct transactions with other countries, he said, adding the Iranian government is duty-bound to present a report on sanctions removal to the legislative body for review.
The parliament will review the draft text being discussed in the Vienna talks, Amoui noted.
The European Union has recently put forward a “final text” of the draft decision on reviving the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), awaiting political decisions from the other participants in the Vienna talks.
Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.
Iran explores alternative banking mechanism to promote trade with India
If the United States acts “logically,” an agreement in the Vienna talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal will be within reach, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said…reports Asian Lite News
Amir Abdollahian made the remarks on Thursday in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, calling on the other sides in the Vienna talks to put forward their initiatives to this end, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website.
He said Tehran is willing to reach a “good,” “strong,” and “lasting” agreement while observing the Islamic Republic’s red lines, Xinhua news agency reported.
The senior diplomat also praised Russia for its positive stance and support for the achievement of an agreement that is acceptable to Iran.
Describing ties with Tehran as important, the Russian foreign minister, for his part, stressed that Moscow will continue its support and efforts to make sure that a fair agreement would be reached in Vienna that safeguards Iran’s demands.
In 2015, Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers, including the United States. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the pact in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments.
Since April 2021, Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties have held several rounds of talks in Vienna to revive the deal.
Iran’s Chief nuclear negotiator has stressed that although the Islamic republic is serious concerning the Vienna talks, it is determined not to trust “the enemy”, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry…reports Asian Lite News
Ali Bagheri Kani, who is also Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, made the remarks on the sidelines of the 26th International Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition, titled Iran Oil Show, in Tehran on Sunday.
“Iran is serious in the process of the Vienna talks and fulfillment of its international commitments, including those pertaining to the removal of the sanctions, to the same extent that it is determined to refrain from trusting the enemy and relying on foreigners for protection from the coercive measures,” he said.
The diplomat added that “revolutionary wisdom” says that Iran must use all its diplomatic capacities to safeguard its national interests, Xinhua news agency reported.
He gave the assurance that the Iranian Foreign Ministry will use all international capacities for “neutralising the sanctions” in addition to making all-out diplomatic efforts aimed at the “maximum removal” of the US sanctions.
Bagheri Kani emphasised that the strategic policy of “neutralising the sanctions”, coupled with the smart initiative of lifting the embargoes, has foiled enemy’s plots to stop Iran’s development.
Iran has turned “the art of bypassing the sanctions” into “the knowledge of neutralising the sanctions,” he said, adding at present, other sanctioned countries seek to use the Islamic republic’s knowledge and experience.
Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the world powers in July 2015, accepting to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on Tehran.
However, former US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the agreement in retaliation.
Since April 2021, several rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the deal.
Iran insists on obtaining guarantees that the succeeding US governments would not drop the deal again and calls for lifting the sanctions in a verifiable manner.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said a “good” and “reliable” outcome is within reach in the Vienna talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal if the US makes its political decision and adheres to its commitments…reports Asian Lite News
Amir Abdollahian said that the visit of Enrique Mora, the EU chief coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, and his talks with Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani “were another opportunity to focus on initiatives to resolve the remaining issues”, reports Xinhua news agency.
Henstressed the contacts among these sides are continuing.
Also on Friday, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he believed there have been “enough progress” in the talks between Mora and Iranian officials in Tehran to relaunch nuclear negotiations after two months of deadlock.
In 2015, Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers including the US.
However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, including freezing some of Tehran’s assets abroad, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the agreement.
Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the deal.
Iran insists on obtaining guarantees that the US government would not drop the deal again and the sanctions would be lifted in a verifiable manner.
The EU coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks Enrique Mora will visit Iran on Tuesday over the Vienna talks aimed to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, semi-official agency Nour News reported…reports Asian Lite News
Nour News, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, gives no details about Mora’s upcoming visit, Xinhua news agency reported.
In July 2015, Iran signed with the world powers a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in which Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of the international sanctions on it.
Iran will continue the path of diplomacy until achieving a final agreement in the Vienna nuke talks, the Iranian Foreign Minister has said…reports Asian Lite News
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a phone conversation with his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website.
In addition to developing and proposing political initiatives, Iran has shown that it has the necessary will to reach a “good”, “strong” and “lasting” agreement in the Vienna talks, the Iranian top diplomat was quoted as saying.
“Now, it is the American side that has to, by adopting a realistic approach, modify (former US President) Trump’s illegal behavior and takes steps in the direction of (developing) political initiatives,” he noted.
Coveney described Iran’s initiatives in the Vienna talks as commendable, highlighting the necessity of reaching a “good” agreement through the diplomatic process that would be capable of safeguarding the interests of Tehran as well as the other parties.
Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with the world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the US-led sanctions. However, Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed the sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA in retaliation.
Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital of Vienna between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties, including China, the UK, France, Russia and Germany, to revive the pact. The US has been indirectly involved in the negotiations as it has quitted the deal.
Iran has pledged to continue the talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal until its “national interests are completely and comprehensively protected”, official media reported…reports Asian Lite News
The remarks were made by Ali Bahadori-Jahromi, spokesman of the Iranian government, in response to talk that the US is close to admitting the failure of the Vienna nuclear talks, reports Xinhua news agency.
The nuclear negotiations are among Iran’s top priorities, Bahadori-Jahromi noted.
Iran will continue efforts within the framework of the international diplomatic mechanisms until it protects its economic interests and nuclear rights, the spokesman added.
In July 2015, Iran signed with the world powers a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in which Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of the international sanctions on it.
However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to gradually drop some of its nuclear commitments under the agreement.
Since April 2021, several rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the deal.
Iran insists on securing guarantees that the US government would not abandon the deal again and lifting the sanctions in a verifiable manner.
Iran says resumption of Vienna talks on agenda. A spokesman said the issues pertaining to Iran, the EU, Russia and China in the talks have been resolved, noting that Enrique Mora, the EU’s coordinator for the negotiations, is pushing through what remains between Iran and the United States
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday the resumption of the Vienna talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal is on the agenda of Tehran and the other parties.
Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a weekly press conference that Iran and the European Union (EU) both maintain a protracted break fails to be in favor of the talks, and it would be appropriate to continue the negotiations as soon as possible.
He said the issues pertaining to Iran, the EU, Russia and China in the talks have been resolved, noting that Enrique Mora, the EU’s coordinator for the negotiations, is pushing through what remains between Iran and the United States.
Khatibzadeh stressed that both Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell agree that a prolonged pause is not in the best interest of the talks.
However, no decision has been made yet on the venue and level of the meeting, and Vienna is waiting for Washington in making its political decision, he noted.
In 2015, Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers, including the United States. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, including freezing some of Iran’s assets abroad, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments.
Since April 2021, several rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the deal.
NATO in Kabul
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that the presence of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan has led to nothing but destruction and massacre in the Asian country, according to the presidency’s website.
Making the remarks in a meeting with the Latvian ambassador to Iran, Raisi said Iran is against any move that would lead the world toward unilateralism and war, such as “oppression and aggression against countries like Afghanistan and Palestine.”
Iran has always supported the respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries, he added.
The Iranian president noted that the Ukraine crisis should not deprive Afghanistan, its people, the large population of Afghan refugees and their problems of sufficient international attention.
Arms to Russia
The Russian Embassy in Iran announced on Sunday that news about sending Iranian weapons to Russia is “fake,” Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.
The embassy said in a statement availed to the Iranian media that “the information published in some media about sending Iranian weapons to Russia is false and does not correspond to reality.”
On April 12, British daily the Guardian reported that “Russia using weapons smuggled by Iran from Iraq against Ukraine.”
It said that “an Iranian-made Bavar 373 missile system, similar to the Russian S-300, has also been donated to Moscow by the authorities in Tehran, who also returned an S-300.”
The Iranian Embassy in the United Kingdom strongly objected to the Guardian’s news on arms shipments to Russia, saying that it is “an unrealistic and baseless storytelling.”
Sanctions on Russia
Khatibzadeh said that Iran does not recognize “unilateral sanctions” against Russia.
As a country targeted with unilateral sanctions for many years, Iran cannot recognize such similar sanctions and embargoes against other countries, Khatibzadeh said.
Stressing that Iran is not a proponent of war, he urged dialogues and diplomacy to end the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The Iranian spokesman also said the United States invaded Iraq “on the basis of a lie” but no country sanctioned Washington.
“The United States cannot be the police, the judge, the jury, and everything in the world,” the spokesman noted.
Iran nuke deal awaits final decisions after talks stalled
Iran and world powers have adjourned their talks, mostly over whether the US will remove Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) list…reports Asian Lite News
At a time when the Iranian nuclear talks are about to reach an agreement, Iran and world powers have adjourned their talks, mostly over whether the US will remove Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) list.
While negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna stalled a year after they began, Tehran and Washington have ramped up their rhetorical war, demanding political decisions from the other side to bridge the final gap, Xinhua news agency reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Thursday said his country “does not pay attention to excessive demands nor will it retreat from its red lines”.
Iran has so far insisted on its position with no signs that it may budge any time soon, said Iran’s English daily newspaper Tehran Times, adding that “in fact, the odds are currently against any change in Iran’s position.”
Hossein-Amir-Abdollahian
Such a firm approach to Vienna talks has recently been praised by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who “expressed his satisfaction with the resistance of the negotiating team to the other sides’ aggression and avarice,” according to his official website.
“The other side withdrew from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and broke its commitments. Now they feel helpless and have reached a dead end,” Khamenei said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal.
According to the reports provided by Amir-Abdollahian and Iran’s Chief Negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani, “the red lines of the system have not been crossed in any way in the Vienna talks,” Jalil Rahimi Jahan Abadi, a member of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying last week.
“The United States not only has not achieved anything since leaving the JCPOA, but even Iran’s position has become stronger and more coherent in recent years than when the United States was present in the JCPOA,” the Iranian lawmaker pointed out.
In the United States, following media reports that President Joe Biden’s administration has considered dropping the IRGC terrorist designation, more Congressmen have voiced opposition to any potential deal with Iran. It would be politically untenable to make such a concession to Iran, Biden’s advisers suggested.
“If Iran wants sanctions-lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they’ll need to address concerns of ours that go beyond the JCPOA,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.
“If they do not want to use these talks to resolve other bilateral issues, then we are confident we can very quickly reach an understanding on the JCPOA and begin to reimplement the deal itself,” he added.
Iran believes that the Trump administration’s move to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation was “politically motivated and designed to make it difficult, if not impossible, for the Biden administration to resuscitate the JCPOA,” according to Tehran Times.
Washington “does not seem to be ready to take the initiative in terms of concluding the Vienna talks. Quite on the contrary, it keeps sending signals that it is not ready to make the kind of political decisions Iran demands,” the newspaper said in a recent op-ed titled “US inaction could doom Vienna talks”.
“The US has halted progress for a nuclear deal. Biden is weak in dealing with political opponents,” Mohammad Marandi, an adviser to Iran’s negotiating team in the Vienna talks, tweeted recently.
Despite the war of words, “the diplomatic path is working properly, and we have not gone far from a good and lasting deal,” Amir-Abdollahiann said.
Meanwhile, Price said Washington is also prepared for a return to full JCPOA implementation, while EU’s mediators continued to send messages and work to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion.
“Tehran and Washington are close to a deal, but both sides need to give and take to achieve the wider benefits” of a renewed JCPOA, Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow and Deputy Head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an article.
It would be “foolish for Washington to jeopardise the opportunity to contain Tehran’s nuclear program over the lifting of what is a largely symbolic designation of the IRGC,” while for Iran, delaying the return to the nuclear deal comes with a high price tag in terms of opportunities lost for its economy, she said.
According to Geranmayeh, “a number of reasonable compromises are in circulation.” One option reportedly under review is to remove the IRGC’s FTO designation but keep on the list its elite Quds Force, which carries out operations in the Middle East.
A group of nuclear non-proliferation experts and former government officials on Thursday urged the White House to complete negotiations to restore compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, saying that “a prompt return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA is the best available way to deny Iran the ability to quickly produce bomb-grade nuclear material.”
“Repeating the failed strategy pursued by the Trump administration is misguided, irresponsible, and dangerous as it would increase the danger that Iran would become a threshold nuclear-weapon state,” they warned.
Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks, during which Iran and the US have negotiated indirectly, have been held in Vienna to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, which former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to drop some of its nuclear commitments.
