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POLICY AzarAb Industries, according to a filing with aren’t willing to wait forever for negotiations
the Iranian stock exchange. to resume. Even Iran’s typically supportive ally
Iranian executive removed WSJ Russia appears impatient.
Allowing diplomacy to languish “in limbo
from sanctions remains Iran talks seen withering for such a long time does not benefit” the
pursuit of an outcome, Moscow’s envoy to
active until August the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, told Kommersant
in an interview published Monday. He said
An Iranian oil executive removed from U.S. Nuclear talks between world powers and Iran negotiations won’t resume before July 22 and
financial blacklists last month because he had aren’t likely to resume until after the Islamic suggested a longer delay was possible.
resigned from Iran’s national oil company now Republic installs its new president next Disagreement over how to sequence
holds senior positions with two Iranian energy month, all but eliminating the chances of an U.S. sanctions relief and Iran’s forfeiture of
firms linked to the Iranian government, early resurrection of their accord struck six nuclear capacity persist, according to Ulyanov.
according to company officials and regulatory years ago Wednesday and a jump in Iranian Tehran’s also asked for guarantees that the U.S.
filings. oil exports. won’t again abandon the deal while the White
The executive’s role at the two companies A seventh round of negotiations in Vienna House demands follow-on talks that address
appears to violate U.S. sanctions, analysts said, is expected to convene around mid-August, Iran’s missile program.
and is expected to fuel concern among U.S. according to two officials familiar with the Raisi has made clear that his government
lawmakers critical of the administration’s Iran schedule, who asked not to be identified in will entertain no such discussions.
policy. Both companies contract with Iran’s line with diplomatic rules. A third European All the while Iran is developing its nuclear
state energy firms, including the blacklisted attache, who also requested to remain activity, which U.S. officials describe as
National Iranian Oil Company, and one of the unidentified, said Iran was only expected to galloping forward. Tehran has raised its
firms is substantially owned by a sanctioned resume talks once Ebrahim Raisi has been uranium enrichment within a whisker of the
state-owned Iranian bank. sworn in as president early next month. purity required to make atomic weapons and
Former NIOC Chief Executive Ahmad Another slip in the timetable could begun laying the groundwork for thousands
Ghalebani was taken off the U.S. Iran further tighten energy markets counting on of new centrifuges to potentially come online
sanctions list on June 11 because he no Iranian oil and gas exports later this year. A this year.
longer held that position in the state firm, “a dispute between two foes of Tehran -- the One European diplomat said delaying
verified change in behaviour” according to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia -- is talks until Raisi takes office doesn’t necessarily
Treasury Department. Mr. Ghalebani stepped preventing OPEC+ from boosting supplies undermine the chances for a compromise.
down from that post in 2013, the same year he as major economies emerge from pandemic The person noted the former judiciary chief,
was originally blacklisted by the U.S. lockdowns. who’s backed by Iran’s supreme leader, has so
The sanctions removal, made at Mr. The star-crossed agreement capped Iran’s far indicated he’s willing to continue pursuing
Ghalebani’s request, lifted financial blocks nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions a deal that would lift sanctions and put the
from any assets he may have had within the relief until then-President Donald Trump atomic caps back in place.
U.S. and affords him unfettered access to the unilaterally withdrew the U.S. in 2018. Moreover, many of the perceived advances
U.S. and other foreign markets. Critics said Iran responded to reimposed penalties by that Iran’s nuclear scientists have made
the removals weakened the U.S.’s negotiating gradually breaking the accord’s nuclear are mostly rehashed pursuits that they’d
position, among other objections. covenants and expanding the industrial abandoned years ago, according to Robert
Mr. Ghalebani continues to serve as an infrastructure used to enrich the uranium Kelley, a U.S. nuclear-weapons engineer who
adviser to the chief executive of Iranian fuel needed for power reactors or weapons. directed inspections of Iraq and Libya’s atomic
oil-services firm Global Petro Tech Kish, Diplomats have been trying to negotiate a way programs at the International Atomic Energy
according to a representative of the company, back since April. Agency.
and was chosen as chairman of a shareholders Both the Biden administration and its “Iran’s possessed the knowledge to make
meeting in late May of petrochemical firm European allies warned last week that they uranium metal for decades,” said Kelley,

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