Reuters. Iran accused the United States on Monday (August 22) of procrastinating in efforts to revive Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal – a charge denied by Washington, which said a deal was closer than two weeks ago because of apparent Iranian flexibility.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said talks regarding the deal had ‘languished,’ adding, “because of the action or often times was the case – inaction from Iran.”
Price said the United States was encouraged that Iran seemed to have dropped demands such as the removal of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U.S. foreign terrorist organization list.
The United States has called on Tehran to release Iranian-Americans held in Iran on security charges. Iran has demanded that several Iranians detained on charges linked to U.S. sanctions be freed.
The 2015 agreement appeared near revival in March after 11 months of indirect U.S.-Iran talks in Vienna. But talks then broke down over obstacles such as Iran’s demand that the United States provide guarantees that no future American president would abandon the deal. U.S. President Joe Biden cannot provide such ironclad assurances because the deal is a political understanding rather than a legally binding treaty.