Iran nuclear deal Russia

Moscow makes last-minute demands as Tehran promises to boost oil production and market shuns Russian crude.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018 and re-imposed nuclear-related sanctions along with new ones related to terrorism and human-rights abuses. “We continue to engage with Russia on a return to full implementation of the JCPOA. Russia shares a common interest in ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon. The investigation by the UN nuclear watchdog looks into the origin of decades-old uranium traces found by IAEA inspectors inside Iran at several undeclared sites in 2019 and 2020. The traces were found by inspectors on the ground after the IAEA reviewed intelligence material stolen by Israeli Mossad agents in a high-risk operation inside Iran in 2018. Underscoring this point, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in its latest confidential quarterly report circulated on March 3 to member states and seen by POLITICO, that Iran had doubled its amount of 60 percent enriched material. “As soon as nuclear negotiations in Vienna are concluded, we can reach our maximum oil production capacity in less than one or two months,” Iran’s oil minister, Javad Owji, said on Thursday, according to a Reuters report citing SHANA, the official oil ministry news agency. In recent days, Western officials have said negotiators were within reach of an agreement, insisting only a few outstanding issues needed to be resolved. The U.S. State Department said sanctions over Ukraine are “unrelated” to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the Iran deal is formally known. But with the international community moving to economically sever ties with Russia following its assault on Ukraine, Moscow says it wants assurances that it will still be able to benefit from a revived Iran accord. “The new Russia-related sanctions are unrelated to the JCPOA and should not have any impact on its potential implementation,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. Russia would play an important role in implementing a renewed Iran agreement, which negotiators say they are close to achieving after 11 months of talks. It has created yet another twist in a long-running saga that has seen the nuclear talks nearly fall apart over and over.