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VIENNA After three weeks of talks, discussions on the Iran nuclear deal are essentially back to where they were at the beginning of summer.

Yet, diplomats said,eventhat reflects progress, coming afterfivemonths in which negotiations were on pause following the election in June ofEbrahim Raisi, a hardline conservative, as president of Iran.

We have now a text that with some minor exceptions is a common ground for negotiations, said Enrique Mora, the senior EU official coordinating the talks.

Iran resumednegotiationswith the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China on November 29, withtheEU acting as coordinator of the talks.Since then, talks have been perpetually close to collapsing, withIrans new regimemakingfresh demandsandrestrictingaccess to its nuclear facilities.

Now, diplomats said, theyve agreed to work off the text frombefore the election, with slight amendments to reflect the latest Iranian proposals.

Modest progress, a senior U.S. State Department officialsaid. We now have a common understanding of what the text will be that will serve as the basis of negotiationson nuclear issues.

It is in the interest of all sides to keep the talks alive, even with a weak heartbeat. European countries have long championed the deal, Irans economy is suffering under heavy sanctions and the U.S. wants to show it is making every diplomatic effort.

Still, officials said that negotiations needed to pick up if they were to be successful,as the fast pace of Irans nuclear advancesis eroding the potential benefits of a deal.

This only takes us back nearer to where the talks stood in June, senior European diplomats cautioned in a joint briefing.

TheseniorState Department official echoed the sentiment. What is on the table now, the official said, is an agenda of issues to be examined, not a set of solutions to be accepted.

Iran and the U.S. are not holding direct negotiations, with Tehran still smarting over former U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the deal known as theJoint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOAin 2018. Instead, they rely on European diplomats to act as go-betweens.

When Iran returned to the table in November, it was unwilling to resume negotiations on the basis of texts that had been negotiated by the previous Iranian administration earlier in the year, changing almost 90 percent of what had beenagreed to inJune,Westernofficials said.

Europeanand U.S.negotiators considered this approach unacceptable and said it had prevented them from getting down to real negotiations.

Irans new negotiating team under Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani also brought new demands to the table. According to a seniorWestern diplomat, Iran wants, among other things, broader access to carbon fiber,as previously reported by the Wall Street Journal. The material is commonly used in airplanes and sporting equipment, but it can also be used to producecentrifuge rotors that are used to enrich uranium.

Iranalsodemands that all sanctionsberemoved, including those that had been imposed by Trump under the so-called maximum pressure campaign.

Westernofficials saidthat the U.S. had put a good offer on the table and that it was up to Iran to accept it. But the issue of sanctions lifting has not been the main focus during this seventh round of talks, according to a senior state department official. We havent gotten to that point yet.

Separately, a collapse of the nuclear talks was averted on Wednesdayafterthe International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reached a Russia-brokered agreement with Iran on allowing international inspectors to replace cameras at a workshop in Karaj, a city west of Tehran, where parts for centrifuges are produced.

By reachingtheagreement, Iran avoided a censure resolution the U.S. had threatened topresent to theIAEA Board of Governors before the end of the year. Iran had said that it would walk away from the nuclear negotiations in such an event.

The cameras needed to be replaced because one of the four IAEA cameras was destroyed in June in what Iran calls an act of sabotage that it blames on Israel. The other three cameras were removed by Iran and they have also kept their memory cards, saying that they will only return them once an agreement at the nuclear talks is reached and sanctions are lifted.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi on Friday showed a sample camera, similar to the ones that will be reinstalled at the Karaj assembly plant, to a packed room of international journalists. In an apparentriposte toIranian claims that the cameras can be hacked, Grossi explained that the cameras cannot be tampered with as they are under IAEA seal and not connected to a computer.

Grossi also said that his inspectors have ways to reconstruct the gap in monitoring since the cameras were removedin Juneand their reinstallations in a few days from now. He said that IAEA inspectors will be able to put the jigsaw puzzle back together.

The stakesin the talksare high theirfailure could lead to instability in the Middle East and anarms race in the region. Military action has also not been ruled out.Time is also running out,giventhefast advances inIransnuclear program.

We are rapidly reaching the end of the road for this negotiation, senior European diplomats concluded.

Ali Bagheri Kani, Irans chief negotiator, framed itdifferently: The pace of reaching an agreement depends on the will of the other side. If they accept Irans logical views and positions, the new round of the talks can be the last round and we can reach an agreement as soon as possible.

The eighth round of talks will begin in Vienna after a break, most likely before the end of the year.

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Iran nuclear talks go back to the future - POLITICO Europe

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In its annual report on terrorism, the United States Department of State underlined the terrorist threats posed by the Iranian regime. This report revives the need to counter Iranian terrorism amid the talks in Vienna and Western governments efforts to restore Irans nuclear deal.

The report highlights how Tehran has been using its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force to support terrorist organizations across the globe. The Iranian regimes network of terrorism and espionage stretches from Africa to South America, Europe, and Asia.

The report underlines that the Iranian regime provide cover for associated covert operations, and create instability in the region, and supports terror groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.

On December 7, 2021, theU.S. Department of Justiceuncovered two large caches of Iranian weapons seized in late 2019 and early 2020 while en route to Yemen via the Arabian Sea.

In a press conference on October 6, 2021, the Iranian Resistance unveiled Tehrans massive UAV program details. The new information about the regimes UAV program, operated by the IRGC Quds Force was gathered by the network of theMojahedin-e Khalq(MEK) inside Iran. The regimes terrorist proxy groups have used these UAVs to spread chaos in the region.

Tehrans support of terrorism in the Middle East and other Muslim Countries has continued since 1980. The absence of a firm international response to the regimes terrorism has encouraged Tehran to continue its malign activities and spread them worldwide, mainly in Western countries.

The U.S. State Department reports highlight that Tehran continued supporting terrorist plots or associated activities targeting Iranian dissidents in Europe.

The most prominent case of the regimes terrorism in Europe is the foiled bombing of the Iranian Resistances rally in 2018 in France. The Iranian regimes diplomat-terrorist, Assadollah Assadi, attempted to bomb the Free Iran rally but was arrested shortly before the operation, along with his three co-conspirators.

On November 17 and 18, a court in Belgium heard the appeal cases of Assadis accomplices who, along with Assadi, received heavy prison sentences in February 2021. The court session continued on December 9, when two explosive experts revealed some of the shocking dimensions of the possible casualties if the bomb had exploded.

The Iranian regimes terrorist activities are not limited to the 2018 foiled bombing. During Assadis trial, it was revealed that he operated an extensive network of spies across Europe. Recent arrests of many Iranian operatives shed light on Irans dark and rooted terrorism in Europe.

In November 2018, Swedish authorities arrested MohammadDavoudzadehLuluifor his cooperation with Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). He was plotting to assassinate an Iranian dissident in Denmark.

In September 2021, Swedish newspapers, including Aftonbladet and Expressen,reportedthat a former Swedish security police chief, Peyman Kia, had been arrested for spyingfor four years between 2011 and 2015. Kia had obtained Swedish citizenship and worked as a director in the Swedish Security Police (SPO) and an analyst in a Swedish military organization, acting as Irans spy.

The Iranian regimes terrorism in Europe dates back to the 1980s. This fact was highlighted in November 2021, when, according to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service accused Lebanese national and a former senior Iranian diplomat at the regimes embassy in Oslo. The duo had attempted to assassinate William Nygaard, the former head of the Norwegian publishing company Aschehoug, who had published the Norwegian edition of Salman Rushdies novel, The Satanic Verses.

The Iranian regimes terrorism is the elephant in the room that, sadly, Western governments try to ignore. Tehran has been using terrorism as leverage to put pressure on the world community to continue its weak approach toward the regime.

History has proven that any weak approach toward a rogue regime will indeed increase their hostile actions. The only way to counter the Iranian regimes terrorism is to impose genuine sanctions on it and end any conciliatory policy toward this regime. The regimes embassies should be shut down, and its agents should be expelled from all Western countries, and this would undoubtedly curb the regimes terrorist activities.

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US Report on Iran Regime's Terrorism Reminds Tehran's Increasing Threats - NCRI - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

A hawkish gaggle of former U.S. national security officials, lawmakers, and diplomats has launched a public campaign to pressure the Biden administration into militarily threatening Iran. Thestatement, headlined by former CIA chiefs Leon Panetta and retired Gen. David Petraeus as well as former Obama-era senior Pentagon officialMichle Flournoy asserts that it is vital to restore Irans fear that its current nuclear path will trigger the use of force against it by the United States.

The statement which was also signed by former Democratic Rep. Jane Harman and Democratic diplomatic heavyweight Dennis Ross, and published by the Washington Institute,a militarist think tank argues that the Biden administration must take steps that lead Iran to believe that persisting in its current behavior and rejecting a reasonable diplomatic resolution will put to risk its entire nuclear infrastructure, one built painstakingly over the last three decades. They suggest that President Joe Biden consider orchestrating high-profile military exercises by the U.S. Central Command, potentially in concert with allies and partners, that simulate what would be involved in such a significant operation, including rehearsing air-to-ground attacks on hardened targets and the suppression of Iranian missile batteries.

Iran analyst Hooman Majd,author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, said the letter from the former U.S. officials is just plain silly. He told The Intercept, Theres no restoring Irans fear the last time it feared a U.S. military strike or war was in the immediate aftermath of the Iraq invasion when it looked like the easy victory there and in Afghanistan would indeed perhaps lead to real men going to Tehran. Majd points out that despite repeated U.S. and Israeli threats of military action, Iran has steadily beefed up its military capabilities. So Id say that Iran doesnt fear U.S. military action against it now, he added. All of the Israeli bluster about preparing for war with Iran hasnt changed their calculus and they know Israel is probably more likely to attack their facilities than the U.S. is so why would any U.S. bluster or preparations for war do so?

Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, blasted the statement, telling The Intercept: The exaggerated faith in the miracles that U.S. militarythreats can deliver are not limited to any one party in the United States, but is intrinsic to the establishment religion that American security is achieved through global military hegemony.

The former U.S. officials argued that their strategy is aimed at forcing Iran to the negotiating table and to compel it to reverse any efforts to develop nuclear weapons made in the aftermath of Donald Trumps abandonment of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. While the United States has recognized Irans right to civilian nuclear power, Irans behavior continues to indicate that it not only wants to preserve a nuclear weapons option but is actively moving toward developing that capability, they wrote. While advocating for potential military action and openly calling on Biden to make explicit military threats the authors of the letter claim their intent is to support diplomatic efforts. [W]e are not urging the Biden Administration to threaten regime change or to advocate for a regime change strategy under cover of non-proliferation, they wrote. This is not about hostility toward Iran or its people.

Parsi, an Iranian American analyst and author of Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy, added, Rather than being the solution to the crisis, the military threat the U.S. poses to Iran is a key reason why the Iranian nuclear program has expanded. The more a country is faced with military threats, the more it will demand a nuclear deterrence.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden repeatedly criticized Trumps abandonment of the nuclear deal and his assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad on January 3. But nearly a year into his presidency, Biden has taken no action to return to the deal and has staked out an increasingly hostile stance toward Tehran. In late August, Biden appeared to be placing military options on the table. During a press gaggle with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House, Biden said, If diplomacy fails with Iran, were ready to turn to other options. The Biden administration has maintained and, in some cases, expanded U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, which has spurred allegations from Tehran that the U.S. is already waging a nonmilitary war against Iranian civilians. Iran is demanding a cessation of sanctions as a precondition to return to negotiations.

Iran has every reason to want to restore the JCPOA at least in terms of getting the most onerous sanctions against it lifted. But it hardly is going to engage because it thinks the U.S. will go to war with it if it doesnt, said Majd.

Donald Trumps military threats and broad economic sanctions are precisely why we are in this mess right now. To believe that more Trumpian conduct by the United States will break the nuclear deadlock bewilders the mind, says Parsi. Trumps exit from the deal and the lack of confidence that the United States will stay in the deal beyond 2024 has profoundly undermined the value of American promises of sanctions relief. The Iranians are hesitating largely because they do not believe that the economic benefits the U.S. promiseswill be forthcoming. No amount of military threats will changethat fundamentalweakness in the U.S. negotiating position.

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Two Former CIA Directors Call on Biden to Threaten Iran Militarily - The Intercept

DUBAI, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Iran is evacuating its envoy to Yemen's rebel Houthi movement after he contracted COVID-19, Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, and a Houthi spokesman said Saudi Arabia and Iraq helped in the transfer of envoy Hasan Irlu.

Saudi Arabia and Iran, the region's Sunni Muslim and Shi'ite powerhouses, launched direct talks this year at a time when global powers are trying to salvage a nuclear pact with Tehran and as U.N.-led efforts to end the Yemen war stall. read more

"In order to transfer him (Irlu) to our country for treatment, the Foreign Ministry conducted consultations with some regional countries to prepare for his transfer, which is currently under way," ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state media.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said on Twitter: "Under an Iranian-Saudi agreement reached through contacts with Iraq, the Iranian ambassador in Sanaa was transferred on an Iraqi plane due to his health condition."

A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis after the movement ousted the internationally recognised government from Sanaa, the capital. The coalition has imposed a sea and air blockade on areas the group controls.

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Reporting by Dubai newsroom; additional reporting by Yasmin Hussein in Cairo; Editing by Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iran repatriating envoy to Yemen who has COVID-19 - Reuters

Why wont Iran cut a deal? Its regime has taken an uncompromising line in renewed talks over its nuclear program. Although that has left the United States and its allies bewildered and frustrated, the regime has solid reasons for doing so.

After all, it is currently managing to weather the tough U.S. and global economic sanctions that were supposed to force the Islamic Republic to compromise. Washington and its allies, meanwhile, are split over how best to approach the talks with Tehran, while after years of empty bluster U.S. threats of military force to cripple Irans nuclear program simply lack credibility. At the same time, the regime is watching Americas current reaction to other global threats, and clearly finding all of it quite reassuring.

None of that bodes well for Washingtons hopes of reviving the 2015 global nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (or JCPOA), and then negotiating a broader deal that would cover such matters as Tehrans ballistic missile program and its terror sponsorship.

With few signs of progress at the talks in Vienna, the Biden administration is moving totightenthe U.S. sanctions that are in place. But, while the sanctions of recent years have clearly battered Irans economy leaving its gross domestic product shrinking, its currency nosediving, and unemployment skyrocketing the regime believesit can weather the sanctions and continue to make progress on its nuclear and its related ballistic missile programs. Thedecisionsof China and Venezuela to buy Iranian oil and gas, and a $400 billiondealunder which China will invest in Irans economy and buy Iranian oil at discounted rates far into the future, give Tehran important ways to sidestep sanctions.

Economic hardship has sent throngs of Iranians to the streets to protest many times over the last decade, but the regime has cracked down harshly in response, killing some protestors, injuring others, and imprisoning even more. That partly explains why, while public discontent with the government is broad and deep, it has not yet coalesced into an effective force to topple the regime.

Meanwhile, U.S. differences with its regional allies over how to approach the nuclear talks have left Washington without the strength of a unified position.

Israel believesthe JCPOA is far too weak and loophole-ridden to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, so it opposes U.S. efforts to revive it, prompting growing tensions between Washington and Jerusalem. Israelfearsthat the United States will agree to lift some sanctions in the midst of nuclear negotiations, giving Tehran more funds for terrorist and missile attacks on the Jewish state.

At the same time, Sunni Arab nations (such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) are worried about Americas continuing commitment to protect them against Iranian encroachment, so they arereaching outto Tehran separately to reduce their own tensions with the Islamic Republic.

Moreover, as seen from Tehran, U.S. threats of military action to prevent Iran from going nuclear almost certainly lack credibility.

Joe Biden is the fourth straight U.S. president to say that he will not let Iran get nuclear weapons, and the fourth to refer obliquely to military action if negotiations prove futile. Over that period, however, no president has approved military action, even as Iran continued to make progress on its nuclear program (enough progress, in fact, that its nowwithin a few weeksof developing a nuclear bomb if it chooses to do so).

To be sure, U.S. and Israeli military officials in recent daysreportedlyhave discussed military exercises to prepare to attack Irans nuclear sites if diplomacy fails; nevertheless, Tehran couldnt help but notice, via aNew York Timesreport, that U.S. officials rejected an Israeli request to hasten the delivery of refueling tankers (which could be part of an Israeli strike on Irans nuclear facilities) because they were back-ordered. Besides, U.S. vows to prevent North Korea from going nuclear, and itsfailure to do so, have left Tehran even more skeptical about a U.S. threat.

Finally, Tehran is watching U.S. and Western responses to Russias build-up along Ukraines border and finding more reasons for reassurance.

Cognizant of a war-weary American populace, President BidenJoe BidenSenate confirms Rahm Emanuel to be ambassador to Japan NY governor plans to add booster shot to definition of 'fully vaccinated' Photos of the Week: Tornado aftermath, Medal of Honor and soaring superheroes MOREstated firmlythat he will not send troops to Ukraine in response to a Russian invasion. Instead, hehas sentsmall arms and ammunition to Ukraine, and he warned Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinOvernight Defense & National Security US warns Putin still mulling Ukraine invasion White House says Putin hasn't made up mind on invading Ukraine Iran has good reasons to hang tough in nuke talks MORE by phone that, in the aftermath of an invasion, Washington would do what it has done to a nuclear-seeking Iran: impose sanctions.

Tehran does not make decisions about its nuclear program in a vacuum. Its tough stance at the talks in Vienna reflects confidence that it can weather sanctions as well as its skepticism that anything more serious might result. At the moment, the Biden administration doesnt seem to be doing anything to alter this calculus.

Lawrence J. Haas, senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, is the author ofThe Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade Americas Empire, from Potomac Books.

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Iran has good reasons to hang tough in nuke talks | TheHill - The Hill