Page 9 - MEOG Week 38 2021

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

Iran to return to Vienna talks within weeks

IRAN IRAN on September 21 said it planned to return that the US would, if in breach of UN security
to the stalled Vienna talks on reviving the 2015 council resolutions, pay compensation.
nuclear deal, or JCPOA, within a few weeks. US President Joe Biden in his September 21
Amid ongoing concerns among the Western speech to the UN general assembly in New York
powers that Tehran has been dragging its feet vowed that Washington was seeking “a return to
over resuming the talks since its new hardline the JCPOA”.
government took power in August, state news He added: “We are prepared to return to full
agency IRNA reported Iranian foreign minis- compliance if Iran does the same.”
try spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying: Raisi was later scheduled to give his first
“As previously emphasised, the Vienna talks will address to the UN general assembly by video
resume soon and over the next few weeks.” link.
He added: “Every meeting requires prior There have been media reports that the Euro-
coordination and the preparation of an agenda.” pean powers made strong efforts on the side-
Russia, one of the JCPOA signatories, has said lines of the UN general assembly this week to
any restarted talks should not start from scratch, convince Iran to hold a joint meeting with the
but on the basis of what was previously negoti- other nuclear deal signatories in New York. Iran,
ated during six intensive rounds of talks that took however, has agreed to no such meeting.
place prior to the Iranian presidential election. Instead, the new foreign minister of Iran,
One possible difficulty that future rounds of Hossein Amirabdollahian, will separately meet
talks would have to overcome is that while the US the five other remaining signatories of the
has agreed to lift most of its economic sanctions nuclear deal—France, the UK, Russia, China
on Iran that are linked to the JCPOA—mainly and Germany.
sanctions introduced following May 2018 after The Raisi administration is yet to announce
ex-US president Donald Trump unilaterally its chief negotiator for the Vienna talks.
walked out of the multilateral nuclear accord— The aim of the nuclear deal is to achieve ver-
it has not agreed to remove sanctions related to ifiable Iranian compliance with conditions and
claimed human rights abuses. limits aimed at ensuring Iran’s nuclear develop-
Tehran, meanwhile, wants some protection ment programme remains entirely civilian in
from any future US walkout from the JCPOA, nature. In return, Iran is supposed to be shielded
should it be relaunched. It is seeking guarantees from heavy economic sanctions.™

Iran cements ties with East as

it becomes full member of SCO

IRAN RUSSIA, China and the other members of the By now it covers towards half of the world’s
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) population.
wasted no time in granting Iran de facto full Iran will see its SCO participation as one in
membership of the Eurasian political, economic the eye for the US.
and security body on September 17. The summit brought the first appearance
Prior to the annual SCO summit, this year abroad of Iran’s new president, the hardline
held in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, there cleric Ebrahim Raisi who took office in August,
was speculation that granting the membership and Raisi wasted no time in calling on the SCO
could prove a long-winded process, but Tehran members to help Tehran form a mechanism to
was quick to step forward with a resounding avert sanctions imposed by the West.
announcement that it had been made part of the Referring to sanctions in his summit speech
increasingly influential club, with only techni- as a form of “economic terrorism”, Raisi said Iran
calities to be dealt with before formal admission. wanted closer ties with its regional neighbours
Apart from Russia and China, Iran—which and rejected Washington’s “unilateralism”.
has held observer status at the intergovernmen- The Raisi administration will now set out
tal organisation for 15 years - will now also sit to use the recognition bestowed on Iran by the
alongside India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbeki- SCO in expanding political, economic and cul-
stan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the SCO. tural ties with countries across the region. A key
The body was formed in 2001 by Moscow, aim will be to strengthen the Islamic Republic’s
Beijing and ex-Soviet Central Asian states. resistance to Western sanctions and strategies

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