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US special envoy to Iran Robert Malley expressed skepticism about the prospects of a new nuclear deal on Sunday.
“I can’t be sure it’s imminent,” Malley said at the Doha Forum in Qatar. “It’s not just around the corner and it’s not inevitable.”
The comments came in contrast to Sayyid Kamal Kharzi, a foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, who said at the Doha forum that a new deal “is imminent” but raised concerns about the US labeling the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization , stayed.
“A national army cannot be listed as a terrorist group,” Kharzi said on Sunday. “It is very important for the Iranians that the IRGC be delisted.”
US Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley addresses the Doha Forum in Doha, Qatar on Sunday, March 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
Former President Trump labeled the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization in 2019, a year after he pulled the US out of the original nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION MAY ALLOW RUSSIA TO BUY IRAN’S SURPLUS ENRICHED URANIUM UNDER NEW NUCLEAR DEAL
The Biden administration has been working to restore the deal for months, but Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine derailed negotiations.
Russia has demanded that its trade with Iran be unaffected by Western sanctions over the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently indicated that those concerns have been overcome.
Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, second from right, listens to the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi as he visited an exhibition on Iran’s new nuclear achievements in Tehran, Iran last year. (Office of the Iranian Presidency/AP)
State Department spokesman Ned Price said earlier this week that it would be “convenient” for Russia to play the same role it played in the JCPOA before deciding to withdraw from it.
STATE SHARE SAYS IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL WILL NOT BE AN ‘VENTILATION HATCH’ FOR RUSSIAN SANCTIONS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the US will prevent Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon regardless of whether the nuclear deal is restored.
“There is no daylight between us on the fundamental thesis that Iran must never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons,” Blinken said in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “Whether or not there is a return to the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, that principle will not change, nor will our commitment to it.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, opposite the second table from the left, meets with Israel’s Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz, opposite the second from the right, Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool))
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Israel rejected the original nuclear deal and welcomed the US withdrawal.
Top diplomats from Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were also present in Israel on Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.