Unresolved Russian demands have caused Iran's nuclear talks to fall apart

Unresolved Russian demands have caused Iran’s nuclear talks to fall apart. 

On Wednesday, there were last-minute demands from Russia that could scupper the talks, diplomats say. However, the United States doesn’t seem to want to talk to Russia about it.

They told Russia not to mess up an almost done deal that would bring the United States and Iran into compliance with the 2015 agreement. On Wednesday, Iran’s top negotiator came back to Vienna from talks in Tehran.

In the talks, Russia’s envoy to the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said there was no evidence that Moscow was holding up an agreement. However, he also said that a final text had not been written.

Talks about bringing back the deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program have come to an end after 11 months. However, several diplomats said there was a “broad consensus” on the deal.

But just as the last issues were being worked out, Russia came up with a new one. 

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It wanted written assurances from the United States that Western sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine would not affect its trade with Iran.

Ulyanov said that Moscow’s demands didn’t get a good response.

It’s suitable for Russia to protect its nuclear interests and more, Ulyanov said. “In light of the new circumstances and sanctions against Russia, we have the right to do what we need to do.”

He said that the United States and the European Union should clarify that sanctions could not affect the progress of nuclear projects in Iran or trade and economic ties with the country.

Ulyanov met the coordinator of the talks, Enrique Mora of the European Union, on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday. They talked again on Thursday.

He said he would still have the final say as soon as the test was done.

When he said there was no final text, he said, “How can our position hold up anything if the final negotiations haven’t been done?”

The text is not entirely acceptable to some of the people at this point.

In this case, the United States is not going to play.

Victoria Nuland, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs said on Tuesday that Russia was trying to get extra benefits from its involvement to restore the nuclear agreement. She said the U.S. would not be playing “Let’s Make a Deal.”

Western diplomats say it’s not clear what Moscow wants. Still, a European diplomat says Russia wants a lot of protections for trade with Tehran, which isn’t good enough for the West.

They said that the talks were not going to end this week.

Monday, Mora stopped informal talks and said it was time to make political decisions that would end the negotiations.

French, British, and German negotiators had already left the talks because they thought there was no more they could do. So it was now up to the U.S. and Iran to work out the remaining issues.

Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s top negotiator, returned to Tehran after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had changed its demands. 

Foreign Minister: At the time, Iran’s foreign minister said that Tehran would not hurt its interests by “foreign elements.”