The United States and its allies clashed with Iran and its ally Russia over Western claims that Tehran is supplying Moscow with drones that have been attacking Ukraine — and the US accused the UN secretary-general of “yielding to Russian threats” and failing to launch an investigation.
At a contentious Security Council meeting Monday on the resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers, the United States and Iran also accused each other of responsibility for stalled negotiations on the Biden administration rejoining the agreement that former President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018.
Iran's U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani insisted Iran's negotiating team exercised “maximum flexibility” in trying to reach agreement and even introduced an “innovative solution to the remaining issues to break the impasse.” But he claimed the “unrealistic and rigid approach” of the United States led to the current stalled talks on the 2015 agreement, known as the JCPOA.
“Let's make it clear: pressure, intimidation and confrontation are not solutions and will get nowhere,” Iravani said.
Iran is ready to resume talks and arrange a ministerial meeting “as soon as possible to declare the JCPOA restoration," Iravani said. “This is achievable if the U.S. Demonstrates genuine political will … The U.S. Now has the ball in its court.”
Speaking before Iravani, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said “the door to negotiations remains open” for a mutual U.S.-Iranian return to full implementation of the JCPOA. But he said, “Iran's own actions and stances have been responsible for preventing that outcome.”
In September, a deal that all other parties had agreed to was “within reach” and “even Iran prepared to say yes," Wood said, “until at the last minute, Iran made new demands that were extraneous to the JCPOA and that it knew could not be met.”
He said Iran's conduct since September — notably its failure to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, and the expansion of its nuclear program “for no legitimate civilian purpose" — has reinforced U.S. Skepticism “about Iran's willingness and capability of reaching a deal, and explains why there have been no active negotiations since then.”
At the end of the council meeting, Wood asked for the floor to refute Iravani, saying it's “a fact" that Iran's extraneous demands and rejection of all compromise proposals are the reason why there has not been a return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA.
“So let me just simply say, The ball is not in the U.S. Court," Wood said. “On the contrary, the ball is in Iran's court.”
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose country remains a party to the JCPOA, told the council Iran's nuclear escalation is making “progress on a nuclear deal much more difficult.”
“Today, Iran's total enriched uranium stockpile exceeds JCPOA limits by at least 18 times, and it continues to produce highly enriched uranium, which is unprecedented for a state without a nuclear weapons program,” she said.