US, Europe lost leverage in Vienna talks, have no card to play with Iran: Analyst

As talks between Iran and the five remaining signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal in the Austrian capital of Vienna have "reached a critical phase," a political commentator says Europe and the US have run out of cards to play with and lost their leverage over Iran.

"The plain fact of the matter is that European and US diplomats in Vienna have lost their leverage over Iran," David Hearst said in an opinion published by the Middle East Eye.

Washington and its European allies, he said, have subjected Iran to "the worst they can deliver" after former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. But Tehran "has not only survived, but grown stronger," he added.

He noted that the three European parties to the JCPOA, Britain, France and Germany, as well as the EU are warning that the failure of the Vienna talks would not only mean a return to the United Nations sanctions against Iran, but the collapse of the JCPOA.

However, he emphasized, "The sanctions prescribed by the UN are weaker, more limited in scope and already implemented within the framework of the sanctions imposed by Trump."

The analyst argued that the UN would not represent a "pressure point" for Iran, warning that the JCPOA collapse would mean the expulsion of nuclear inspection teams of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from Iran.

Under a law passed by the Iranian Parliament in December 2020, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) was tasked with restricting the IAEA’s inspections and accelerating the development of the country’s nuclear program beyond the limits set by the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

The law, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, halted all inspections of Iran nuclear facilities beyond the Safeguards Agreement, in a move – as the name suggests – to push the US to remove its sanctions.

Iran allowed IAEA cameras installed at Karaj facility after its preconditions met: AEOI spokesman

Iran says it allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to reinstall its cameras at the TESA Karaj Complex after the IAEA met its preconditions.

While adhering to the law, the AEOI has continued its constructive cooperation with the IAEA throughout 2021.

Elsewhere in his article, Hearst said the reaction of Russia and China -- two signatories to the JCPOA -- to the collapse of the Vienna talks would be more sobering to Western hawks. "Both Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have a host of other reasons not to play ball with Europe and America. Their relationship has deteriorated with Washington to the point where it becomes very difficult to cooperate on any issue."

According to the article, the real cards are with the Russian president ss he and his Chinese counterpart "have it within their power to make life exceedingly difficult for Western hawks. Far from taming Russia and China, the US is pushing them into each other’s arms."

In the Vienna talks, Hearst said, Iran wants a "full return" to the JCPOA in its original form which means the removal of all sanctions imposed on the country, a guarantee that the US could not walk away from the deal in the future and a system of verification.

"The Iranian insistence on guarantees and verification is real, not rhetorical," he pointed out.

Iran FM: In Vienna, we seek guarantees that new sanctions won’t be imposed

Iran’s foreign minister says the country seeks guarantees that no further sanctions will be imposed after they are removed.

Iran and the five remaining signatories to the JCPOA resumed talks in Vienna on Monday after the parties took a three-day break for the New Year.

The eighth round of the Vienna talks began on December 27 with a focus on the removal of all US sanctions. The US is not allowed to directly attend the talks due to its pullout in 2018 from the landmark deal with Iran.

During the previous round of the talks, the first under Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raeisi, Iran presented new proposals at the negotiating table to help the talks move forward and later criticized the European signatories of the JCPOA for failing to follow suit and remaining passive.

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