Iran has accused the United States and the United Kingdom of
holding prisoner exchange talks hostage after Iran said nuclear talks should be
delayed until after its new government comes into office.
Abbas Araghchi Deputy
foreign minister said Iran is preparing for a transfer of power to the incoming
administration of Ebrahim Raisi in early August, and therefore months-long
talks in Vienna to restore the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with
world powers must wait. US and UK need to understand this and
stop linking a humanitarian exchange ready to be implemented with the JCPOA, he
tweeted on Saturday, using the formal name of the landmark accord, the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action. Keeping such an exchange hostage to
political alms achieves neither he said, adding that 10 prisoners on all sides
could be released tomorrow if the other parties do their part. US State Department spokesman Ned Price
said later on Saturday that the comments were an outrageous effort to deflect
blame from the current impasse. We stand ready to return to Vienna to
complete work on a mutual return to the JCPOA once Iran has made the necessary
decisions,” Price said, as reported by the Reuters news agency. With respect to the comments on the
Americans whom Iran has unjustly held against their will, we see just another
cruel effort to raise the hopes of their families … There is no agreed deal
yet, he said. There was no immediate comment from the
UK government. Iran and the US have acknowledged for
months that they are engaging in indirect talks facilitated by Switzerland to
finalize an exchange of prisoners. Both sides said last week the talks have
progressed. The two countries have conducted
prisoner exchanges twice in the past, once in January 2016 when the nuclear
deal was implemented, and once in December 2019. Like the nuclear talks, it appears now
that the prisoner exchange is also being deferred until after the
ultraconservative Raisi assumes office. While diplomats had initially expressed hope that the JCPOA could be restored by
the sixth anniversary of its signing on July 14, a report Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote to parliament last week confirmed that
Raisi is hoped to “complete” the process that started in May. Zarif said most of the sanctions the US
has imposed on Iran since 2018 – when it unilaterally abandoned the JCPOA –
will be lifted if an agreement is reached in Vienna. But steps Iran has taken
to advance its nuclear program, including enriching uranium to higher than 60
percent and producing uranium metal, have also complicated the negotiations. The Vienna talks are likely to be
continued in the second half of August, but it remains to be seen how political
differences in Tehran evolve until then. In addition to affecting the timeline,
Raisi’s team has already had a direct effect on the progression of the talks as
he has appointed two members to a newly-formed “adaptation committee” that is
tasked with reviewing progress. Those members are security official Ali
Hosseini-Tash and former nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani, both of whom are
thought to be potential candidates for replacing veteran diplomat Zarif as
foreign minister. The committee is also reportedly comprised
of Araghchi; Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security
Council; Ali Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran; and
two legislators.
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