Page 11 - MEOG Week 29 2021

MEOG POLICY MEOG

South Korea and to a lesser extent Japan, Harder line
both major tech exporters, hold billions of dol- Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters this
lars in assets from Iran that have been stuck since week that president-elect Raisi planned to adopt
Trump’s sanctions, AFP noted. “a harder line” in the talks after taking office,
South Korea and Japan previously had large adding that the next round might resume in late
presences in the Iranian technology and auto- September or early October.
motive markets, with brands like KIA and Sony One official said many members of Iran’s
making major impacts via Iranian counterparts. nuclear team might be replaced with hardline
officials, but top nuclear negotiator Abbas Ara-
Deep regret qchi would stay “at least for a while”.
Outlining his disappointment that his adminis- The second official said Raisi planned to show
tration has not been permitted by the most sen- “less flexibility and demand more concessions”
ior Iranian officials to attempt to make the final from Washington such as keeping a chain of
moves in sealing a revival of the nuclear deal. advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges in
An opportunity that opened up when Joe place and insisting on the removal of human
Biden arrived in the Oval Office with the inten- rights and terrorism-related US sanctions.
tion of dismantling his predecessor’s Iran pol- However, Raisi – already widely disliked
icy – Rouhani, as reported by official Iranian among many Iranians as the regime arranged
news agency IRNA, said: “They took away the for him to contest a presidential election that
opportunity to reach an agreement from this barred the participation of leading moderates,
government. We deeply regret missing this giving him an easy path to victory – will be wary
opportunity.” of not finding a way to restart the JCPOA as a
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has continuation of US sanctions could plunge Iran
the final say on all matters of state in Iran. into renewed economic difficulties that would
Like Khamenei, Raisi has backed the indirect cause additional tension in Iranian society.
talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at Despite the feeling that Raisi in the final anal-
restoring US and Iranian support and full com- ysis will opt to sign up to a ‘JCPOA 2.0’, hardline
pliance with the JCPOA. parliamentarians in Iran continue to present the-
However, restoring the nuclear deal will be atrical distaste for the Rouhani administration
politically awkward for Raisi as Iran’s hardliners efforts to resurrect the JCPOA. On July 13, Iran’s
six years ago opposed the Rouhani deal with the Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sub-
US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China mitted to parliament what was seen as his final
that brought the accord into existence. report on the status of the talks over the revival
A sixth round of nuclear talks in Vienna of the accord. He earned the ire of hardliners as,
aimed at reviving the JCPOA adjourned on in the 213-page document, he declared Iran was
June 20. The next round of the talks has yet to be “only one step away” from getting the deal back
scheduled, but the US has said there is no dead- on track. The hardliners took the line that the
line for setting a date. report was a “justification” for a series of “fail-
Russia has said an agreement to restore the ures.” When Trump walked out on the nuclear
nuclear deal is 90% complete, but Western deal, even though Iran remained at that point in
officials have cautioned that significant differ- full compliance with it, he boosted the hardline
ences between Tehran and Washington must be camp as at the time of the signing of the JCPOA
overcome. it warned that America can never be trusted.™

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