U.S. negotiators are nearing a deal to revive the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers that was repudiated by President Trump in 2018, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday, but there were also signs President Biden will face major resistance selling the deal back home.
Diplomats from Iran, the U.S. and five other countries have been negotiating for months in Vienna over a deal to reestablish curbs on Tehran’s nuclear programs in exchange for lifting punishing economic sanctions re-imposed by Mr. Trump after Washington left the agreement. Citing the U.S. withdrawal, Iran has been aggressively violating limits on uranium enrichment and other programs set in the 2015 agreement.
“Our view is that we are close,” Ms. Psaki said. “… We also know from having been through these negotiations before that the end of the negotiations is always when the difficult and challenging parts of the conversation typically take place.”
Ms. Psaki’s comments come just hours after French officials said the window to strike a deal is shrinking. The U.S. and its European allies say they will not tolerate indefinite stalling by Iran in the bid to revive the tattered agreement.
“We are very close to an agreement but the window of opportunity is closing,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters.
But a bipartisan group of 21 House lawmakers has put Mr. Biden on notice they will likely oppose the impending Iran nuclear deal over concerns about reported concessions in the agreement.
SEE ALSO: Bipartisan House group warns Biden against looming Iran nuclear deal
“From what we currently understand, it is hard to envision supporting an agreement along the lines being publicly discussed,” wrote the lawmakers, who included 12 Democrats and nine Republicans.
The letter expressed concern about speculation the deal will lift the official U.S. terrorist designation for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It also opposed the lifting of sanctions on top aides to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei without appropriately “acknowledging Iran’s role as the world’s leading state sponsor of terror — which was noticeably absent” from the original deal as well.
The members argued that, in offering sanctions relief, the administration would be providing a “clear path for Iranian proxies to continue fueling terrorism.”
The Biden administration had hoped to reach a deal by the end of February. The nuclear deal was a major foreign policy breakthrough for the Obama administration, with Mr. Biden supporting the deal as vice president.
Analysts are split on the deal’s effectiveness. Many Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress say Iran cannot be trusted and the deal does not limit other aspects of Tehran’s hostile foreign policy, including backing anti-American groups across the Middle East. Israel, a key American ally in the region, has also fiercely opposed the deal, as have Sunni Arab U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia.
But supporters say rejoining the agreement will give Washington leverage to roll back Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons and open the way for progress on other issues. Mr. Biden and his aides say that without a deal, Iran would be free to pursue nuclear weapons and that Mr. Trump’s program of “maximum pressure” and sanctions failed to deter Iran’s hard-line leadership.
SEE ALSO: Dissident group to Biden: Trump was right to list Iran’s IRGC as terrorist organization
Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon and insists its nuclear programs are meant for civilian power needs. Iran’s state-controlled Tasnim news agency said Thursday there were still a handful of issues to be resolved in the Vienna talks, including Iran’s demand for guarantees that U.S. and Western economic sanctions will not be re-imposed by a future administration.
Separately, a leading Iranian exile dissident group also called on the Biden administration not to remove the IRGC’s terror designation, amid reports that Tehran is demanding the de-listing as part of any final deal.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, in a report circulated Thursday, said the listing done by the Trump administration effectively “handicapped many of the IRGC-related foreign financial transactions.” The Council report said the IRGC is “a serious global threat” engaged in “ceaseless terrorist activities to foment mayhem, destruction and instability across the Middle East.”
“Stopping this threat without clipping the terrorism wings of the IRGC will not be very effective,” the report added. “If money flows into the IRGC unhindered, it will end up in the hands of Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemeni’s Houthis, Iraqi Shiite militias and other proxies.”
— Guy Taylor contributed to this report.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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