BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10. It is still unknown in what direction Iran and the Western countries will take steps regarding Iran's nuclear program, Trend reports.
Recently, information has been released about secret talks about Iran's nuclear program, and some media, including Reuters, and Middle East Eye, have published information about a possible agreement between Iran and the US on Iran's nuclear program. However, this information was denied by both the US and Iran.
It is possible to draw three conclusions based on the information about Iran's nuclear program:
- Firstly renegotiated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2022 is no longer on the US agenda.
- Secondly, there are still conflicting nuances about the details of the interim agreement, and this agreement has not been finalized.
- Thirdly, the denial of the agreement by both parties is intended to frustrate the plans of the third parties due to the negotiations taking place in a secret format.
In general, it can be said that misunderstandings about some issues in the discussions between the US and Iran make it very difficult to reach an agreement, at least in the near future.
However, in connection with the progress achieved in the discussions between the two sides, it is claimed that within the mentioned agreement, Iran will stop its activities on enriching uranium to 60 percent and above, and will continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to control its nuclear program and confirm that it is for peaceful purposes.
In return, Tehran will be given the opportunity to export 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, get its earnings, and its assets frozen abroad will be unblocked. Provided that those funds will be spent on the purchase of essential products, including food and pharmaceuticals.
According to the information obtained by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has increased the amount of highly enriched uranium by 27 percent in the last three months, and currently, the country's enriched uranium reserves are 4,745 kilograms. This is 15 times more than the amount of uranium allowed for Iran in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
On May 8, 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5+1 group (Russia, China, the UK, France, the US, and Germany), and imposed new sanctions against Iran as of November 2018.
Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals. The sanctions have resulted in the freezing of Iranian assets abroad.
Recently, Iranian media made a report about the unblocking of $24 billion of Iran's frozen assets abroad.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions on Iran in November of the same year. To preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal started in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories that have not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA on Sept.5. On Nov. 5, 2019, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped to the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
On Jan.2020, Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA.
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