The US won’t negotiate exemptions to Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and could try to strike a separate accord excluding Moscow, a senior US official said, a diplomatic effort complicated by an Iranian missile attack on the Iraqi city of Arbil that sent American troops rushing for shelter.
With one of President Joe Biden’s top foreign-policy goals imperilled, the US official said Washington would start exploring alternatives to the deal over the next week if Russia didn’t back away from its demands for written guarantees exempting Russia from Ukraine-related sanctions that could curtail its future trade with Iran. Such guarantees could undercut the West’s punishing array of sanctions levelled at Russia over the Ukraine invasion.
“I don’t see the scope for going beyond what is within the confines of the JCPOA,” the US official said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that there is no room for making exemptions beyond those.”
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said US officials were still seeking an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program despite the Iranian missile strike in Iraq. “If Iran has a nuclear weapon, its ability to project power into the Middle East and to deter us, our allies and partners is enormous,” Ms Sherman said on Fox News Sunday.
Read the article by Laurence Norman and Dion Nissenbaum in The Australian.