Iran Nuclear Deal

(August 2022)

Is a renewal of the Iran nuclear deal within reach?

The Iran nuclear deal has been negotiated through indirect talks since April 2021.
The original deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in July 2015 between Iran, the U.N. National Security Council, Germany and the European Union.
In May of 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Washington would leave the JCPOA.
Amid recent negotiations, Iran has had three primary demands:
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) close its probe into the origins of uranium traces.
Guarantee that U.S. Presidents cannot unilaterally leave the deal, as former President Trump did.
Washington remove Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list, lifting sanctions against Iran.
On August 8, 2022, the European Union proposed a draft nuclear deal as a final offer to save the 2015 JCPOA.
This proposal responded to Iranian objections to IAEA investigations into the origins of uranian traces. If Iran can provide credible explanations into these traces prior to re-implementation of the deal, the IAEA will close its probe on the matter.
On Friday, August 12, U.S. chief negotiator Special Envoy Robert Malley stated: “We are considering the text very carefully to make sure that it lives up to the president’s very clear guidance that he would only sign up to a deal that is consistent with U.S. national security interest.”
By the end of the day on Monday, August 15, Iran responded to the EU’s draft.
On Tuesday, August 16, a spokesperson for European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell responded: “We are studying it and are consulting with the other JCPOA participants and the US on the way ahead.”
According to Iran’s IRNA News Agency, “an agreement will be concluded if the United States reacts with realism and flexibility.”
In a U.S. State Department Press Briefing, Spokesperson Ned Price asserted that “if Iran is prepared for a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA, so are we. The only way to achieve a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA is for Iran to drop further unacceptable demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA.”

Please direct all congressional inquires to: SSchaefer@mepc.org

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