Window open for Iran nuclear talks, but not forever; U.S. official
The window is still open to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal but won't be forever, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, saying Iran has yet to name a negotiator, set a date for talks or say whether it would resume where they left off in June.
According to Reuters, Washington was prepared to be patient, the U.S. official told reporters, but said at some point Iran's nuclear advances would overtake the deal and the United States and its partners would have to decide whether Iran was willing to revive it.
"We're still interested. We still want to come back to the table," the senior U.S. State Department official said in a telephone briefing. "The window of opportunity is open. It won't be open forever if Iran takes a different course."
Tehran signaled on Tuesday that negotiations would resume in a few weeks without giving a specific date.
The U.S. official declined to say what the United States might do if Iran refuses to return to negotiations, or if a resumption of the original deal proves impossible. Such U.S. contingency planning is often called "Plan B."
"The 'Plan B' that we're concerned about is the one that Iran may be contemplating, where they want to continue to build their nuclear program and not be seriously engaged in talks to return to the JCPOA," he said, in a reference to the deal's formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Iran and the United States in April started indirect talks in Vienna on salvaging the nuclear agreement, but those stopped two days after Ebrahim Raisi was elected Iran's president in June.
"Time is not on our side with respect to a potential agreement because Iran is taking advantage of the delays in order to compound its nuclear violations, making a return to the JCPOA increasingly complicated," said French foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre.
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