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The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, Austria May 23, 2021. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The door to resuscitating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is open for now but "we are rapidly reaching the end of the road" to revive a pact that is being gutted by Iran's nuclear advances, France's ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"We are nearing the point where Iran's escalation of its nuclear program will have completely hollowed out the JCPOA," Nicolas de Riviere told reporters, referring to Iran's 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal with six powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

"Iran has to choose between the collapse of the JCPOA and a fair and comprehensive deal...Iran's continued nuclear escalation means that we are rapidly reaching the end of the road," he said, flanked by the U.N. ambassadors from Britain and Germany, a group known as the E3.

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He added: "Iran's nuclear program has never been more advanced than it is today. This nuclear escalation is undermining international peace and security and the global non-proliferation system."

Under the 2015 accord, Iran limited its nuclear program - which the West feared would be used to develop weapons, something Tehran denies - in return for relief from U.S., European Union and U.N. sanctions.

In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal and reimposed U.S. sanctions, prompting Iran to begin violating its nuclear restrictions about a year later.

Indirect talks to salvage the deal are now underway in Vienna between Iran and the United States in which officials from the other nations shuttle between the two sides because Tehran rejects direct contact with U.S. officials.

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Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Originally posted here:
Nearing 'end of the road' to save Iran nuclear deal -France - Reuters

On the morning of Aug. 30, 2019, then-President Donald Trump was receiving his daily intelligence briefing with a a select group of senior national security officials, including CIA Director Gina Haspel, national security adviser John Bolton and other top aides.

U.S. officials at the meeting were delighted. The previous day, Iran had attempted to launch a satellite into space, but the launch had failed spectacularly, with the rocket exploding on the pad.

Included in that mornings briefing materials was a classified image, taken by satellite, of the botched rocket launch, showing extensive damage to the site.

The president was taken by the image. Trump thought this was very neat, and asked if he could keep it, said a former Trump administration official. And after some hesitation, the intelligence briefer said, 'Yes.'"

Officials had been nervous about leaving the image with the president, according to the former official, who attended the meeting. Gina [and other intelligence officials] may have said something like, Well, dont do anything with it, dont show it to anybody. But I think he just blew them off. He said, I just want to look at the picture.

About an hour later, Trump tweeted the picture.

Then-President Donald Trump in June 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Some officials worried that Trumps decision to release the image compromised a key U.S. spy capability, potentially giving Iran a leg up in concealing its nuclear and missile programs. Now, with the U.S. and Iran embroiled in contentious indirect negotiations over salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal, from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018 and Iran appearing to prepare for another satellite launch, officials and experts are still split on the fallout from Trumps move.

Any effort the U.S. or our allies are taking to disrupt or monitor Iranian satellite launches should have been held in the utmost secrecy, said Michael Mulroy, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East from 2017 to late 2019.

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The same technology used to propel satellites into orbit can be used to develop ballistic missiles, so top U.S. officials kept a close eye on these launches, worried that Tehran was aiming to develop weapons including, in the future, nuclear ones that could strike anywhere on Earth.

Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than it was while in the [2015] agreement, says Mulroy. By some estimates, they could have one in a matter of months. This makes their efforts to develop a delivery system even more important.

But during the Trump presidency, officials had difficulty getting the presidents attention on the subject. It was simply not something, despite repeated efforts, I could get Trump to focus on strategically, wrote Bolton in The Room Where It Happened, an account of his time in the Trump administration.

One thing is certain: President Trumps decision to release the classified image was anything but conventional. Trump could not attach the photo to a tweet digitally, since the electronic devices some use to access their classified daily intelligence briefs are cut off from the open Internet. So Trump had an aide take a photo of the picture from the hard copy of Trumps daily brief and post it online, according to the former Trump administration official.

Trump's move seemed designed to mock the Iranians and raise the specter of U.S. sabotage. The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One, he tweeted in the text that accompanied the image.

U.S. presidents have unlimited authority to declassify information, but the decision to release this image from a U.S. spy satellite without interagency discussion or first degrading the image quality, and on such an expedited timeline was likely unprecedented, according to former officials. (Indeed, academic analysts, using commercially available imagery, had already exposed the failed launch before the presidents tweet.)

Michael Mulroy, former assistant secretary of defense for international security assistance. (Monica King/courtesy U.S. Army)

Although U.S. spy satellites orbital paths are widely known to adversarial intelligence services, academic researchers and amateur astronomers alike images from these satellites are generally highly classified, as they reveal the satellites precise resolution capabilities, which are superior to commercially available technology, according to former officials.

The intelligence community was extraordinarily unhappy that Trump released the image, said the former Trump administration official, adding that a senior intelligence official called him after the tweet asking what the f*** was going on at the White House.

The tweet of the image was incredibly stupid and ridiculous and damaging, said a former senior official at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency responsible for U.S. spy satellites.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and National Reconnaissance Office did not return requests for comment.

Some Trump-era officials recall the presidents decision differently.

Trump brought up publishing the image at the morning intelligence meeting, said a former senior White House official who also attended the meeting. And while CIA Director Haspel and other intelligence officials were opposed to the idea, they didnt blow a gasket over it, said the former official. In fact, this person recalled, the image was only classified at the secret level.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is launched from Cape Canaveral, Nov. 13, 2020. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)

There was little pushback from top intelligence community and Pentagon officials about releasing the photo, according to multiple Trump administration officials. There was no particular angst about releasing the photo, said a former senior intelligence official.

It wasnt a crown jewel, by any stretch of it, says the former senior White House official. And in any case, say Trump era officials, advances in commercially available satellite imagery meant that the picture that the president released wasnt much better than what was widely publicly available.

Not so, says the former senior NRO official. The image Trump released was classified at the top secret codeword level that is, the highest possible level of secrecy, said this former official. The image was taken by a KH-11 series reconnaissance satellite among the most sensitive employed by the U.S. intelligence community, according to former officials.

The tweet cost billions in damage, estimated the former senior NRO official. The gift that [the Iranians] were given was, Oh, the Americans have this capability with this satellite series, now we know, said the former senior NRO official. Its because they saw the resolution the satellite was capable of, added this official.

At the NRO, officials worried about what their platforms might now be missing, since Iran and other U.S. adversaries newly aware of U.S. spy satellite powers would likely change their behaviors. It degraded our confidence in that capability to pick up things that we might otherwise have picked up, said this former official.

Iranian protesters outside the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran mark the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

The image revealed U.S. spy satellite resolution capabilities that are three times better than the best commercially available imagery, says Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and expert on satellite imagery. Mathematically, its not an order of magnitude better, but analytically, it was an order of magnitude better.

Lewis found the image highly instructive. As an outsider who tries to keep very close tabs on what the U.S. intelligence community is doing on the classified side, the image was a goldmine, and I learned a lot, he says.

Lewis believes that the release of the image likely had an impact on intelligence communities around the world.

I dont want to exaggerate how bad it was, says Lewis, who notes he is generally an advocate for greater government openness. Its not that the satellites stopped working. Its just that it aids countries in deceiving those satellites.

Lewis says Iran has introduced new measures to make satellite-based analysis of their launch activities more difficult, which he attributes to a mix of what the Iranians learned from the image released by Trump, as well as the increased public scrutiny from open source analysts like him. What precisely caused the change in Iranian behavior is hard to disentangle, Lewis says.

Some Trump administration officials dismissed the concerns about revealing the image as overblown.

I also heard those whines and whimpers and clutching of pearls from the intelligence community about the tweeted image, said a former senior administration official. But I did not see any change [in spy satellite capabilities], or nobody gave me a convincing case of why that mattered.

The former senior intelligence official chalked it up to parochial concerns at the NRO. To be very blunt, NRO thinks any satellite imagery that is ever released anywhere is a big deal, whether it comes from them or anyone else, said this former official.

Then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Dallas, September 2015. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

But NRO officials were shocked and too intimidated to speak up, recalled the former senior NRO official.

It was almost like, you dont want to bring the weight of the president onto NRO because you can see that hes just gone with a flamethrower with the FBI and CIA, said this former official. And NRO was like, we just want to be left alone.

The presidents actions were calculated, according to the former senior White House official. Trump said that the tweet will get inside the Iranians head, whether [the explosion on the launchpad] was an accident or not, said this former official. He was pretty convinced he was going to tweet the image, and he did it.

The former official denied that the explosion was the result of U.S. covert action. The missile blew up; it wasnt anything we did to it, he said.

The Iranians are extremely accident-prone right now because they lack the funds to do the necessary upkeep on their space program, said the former senior administration official. There are things that do just happen by accident.

But others were less definitive about the explosion being accidental. There was a lot of heartburn over the tweet, says a former senior Pentagon official. If youve had, generally speaking, covert action success, you need to keep it covert. Because thats what made it a success.

Originally posted here:
More than two years after Trump tweeted a classified image of Iran, former officials are divided on fallout - Yahoo News

An artist born without the use of his left arm, who has competed in the Paralympics, is to have his artwork exhibited in Edinburgh

Mohammad Barrangi, from Rasht, in Iran makes prints inspired by Persian storytelling and calligraphy.

For some of his work he uses poppy roll, a heavy fabric scroll similar to the old versions of papyrus a material used in ancient Egypt made from the pithy stem of a water plant for writing or painting on.

He also prints large-scale murals and works on raw canvas.

One of Mr Barrangis prints depicting a zebra on a yellow background (Mohammad Barrangi)

With the disability in his left hand, Mr Barrangi works on the floor and uses his feet to steady his work while he is cutting or printing.

When not immersed in his artwork, the printmaker has excelled in sport,previously representing Iran as a sprinter in Paralympic 100m and 200m races.

Taking inspiration from his body, the artist and athlete said his work often shows images of people with lost arms, limbs or other disabilities.

Without the use of his left arm, Mr Barrangi uses his right hand and feet to steady his work when he is printing (Mohammad Barrangi)

He also draws on images and ideas from a combination of Western and Eastern artwork for his prints, and from women he admires.

In my world, all heroes are women, he said.

I like to depict images of my mother, exiled Iranian queens or just friends who mean a lot to me.

I will often combine them with animals or mythical creatures, as my work often focuses on journeys and travelling and immigration.

Sometimes I combine elements from classical Western paintings with Eastern stories or imagery.

My Strange World (2020) print by Mr Barrangi (Mohammad Barrangi)

In August 2017, Mr Barrangi, who now lives in Leeds, arrived in the UK seeking asylum from Iran.

Now, with a Master of Arts from the Royal Drawing School in London under his belt, he is the first artist involved in the Edinburgh Printmakers new pan-European art project called In From The Margins.

The programme, funded by the European Commissions Creative Europe, which supports the culture and audiovisual sectors, will offer residency opportunities to refugees and asylum-seeking artists and/or artists affected by migration.

Mr Barrangis work will be showcased as part of the Anything Is Possible exhibition at the venue, which runs from January 22 to March 27 next year.

A portrait of Mohammad Barrangi, whose artwork will be exhibited at the Edinburgh Printmakers from January next year (Mohammad Barrangi/Edinburgh Printmakers)

Throughout the residency programme, Edinburgh Printmakers will be welcoming refugee and migrant communities in the studios to engage with resident artists, to share their stories and create new work.

Mr Barrangi added: My work ultimately shapes me and my feelings and my view of the community around me so while every exhibition is different it comes from my own innermost feelings.

Every exhibition I like to try new methods and new work. Of course there is a risk, but for me it is a challenge.

Mr Barrangis work combines elements of Persian calligraphy, storytelling, text, andtouches of humour (Mohammad Barrangi)

Mr Barrangis work is also included in the Royal Family Collection, British Museum Collection and the San Diego Museum of Art Collection.

Excerpt from:
Paralympian from Iran to have artwork exhibited in Edinburgh - The Independent

The nuclear negotiators for the E3 France, Germany and the U.K. told Iranian negotiators in coordination with the U.S. that the opening proposals they presented in Vienna nuclear talks this week were unserious and unacceptable, an E3 diplomat briefed on the talks said.

Why it matters: The readout of the first round of talks show gaps between Iran and its Western counterparts that at the moment seem very wide and hard to bridge.

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The big picture: Iranian negotiators, led this week by deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani, presented two new drafts in Vienna for an agreement on sanctions relief and measures Iran needs to take in order to roll back its nuclear program in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.

The E3 diplomat said the draft on sanctions relief was extreme and maximalist, with the Iranians increasing their sanctions relief demands in comparison to the draft agreement achieved with the previous Rouhani government last June.

The second draft on Iranian nuclear measures was also very hardline. The E3 diplomat said the Iranians removed all of the previously agreed compromise language on steps they will take to roll back their nuclear program. In practice, the Iranians agree to fewer limitations on their nuclear program.

The latest: Talks in Vienna broke on Friday afternoon after a meeting of the nuclear deal joint commission, which includes Iran, the EU, France, Germany, the U.K., Russia and China.

Senior E3 diplomats said after the joint commission meeting that they were "disappointed and concerned" about the changes Iran proposed to the draft text, which was negotiated during six rounds of the talks prior to the Iranian elections in June.

Iran is backtracking on almost all of the difficult compromises reached in months of tough negotiations and is demanding substantial changes to the text," the E3 diplomats said.

The E3 diplomats said that because Iran had suspended talks for five months during which it has accelerated its nuclear program it's hard to know whether the new gaps in the negotiations can be closed in a realistic timeframe.

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The diplomats said the delegations must go back to their capitals for consultations in order to assess next steps.

"Our governments remain fully committed to a diplomatic path. However, the window for that is getting smaller," the E3 diplomats said.

The other side: Noor News, a website close to Iran's Supreme National Security Council, reported on Thursday night: "In contrast to the two proposals Iran put on the table of negotiations, the West did not take any initiative, causing the process of negotiations to slow down."

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Western negotiators tell Iran new nuclear proposals are "not ...

JERUSALEM (AP) The long-delayed resumption of nuclear talks with Iran has gotten off to a rough start with Iran digging in and its negotiating partners openly voicing frustration and pessimism.

After five days of talks in Vienna ended last week, the United States said Iran did not appear to be serious. European diplomats accused Iran of backtracking on previous promises. Even Russia, which has stronger relations with Iran, questioned Irans commitment to the process. Israel, an outside observer with a stake in the outcome of the talks, has ramped up its rhetoric and is dispatching two top security officials to Washington for consultations.

I call on every country negotiating with Iran in Vienna to take a strong line and make it clear to Iran that they cannot enrich uranium and negotiate at the same time, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday. Iran must begin to pay a price for its violations.

Perhaps the most encouraging outcome of last weeks talks was an agreement to continue talking. When negotiators reconvene in coming days, it could become clearer if the wide gaps visible last week were a sign of posturing or a serious crisis.

The negotiations seek to revive the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers. That agreement, spearheaded by President Barack Obama, granted Iran relief from crippling sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

But three years later, President Donald Trump, with strong encouragement from then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from the deal, causing it to unravel. Since then, Iran has stepped up its nuclear activities -- amassing a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that goes well beyond the bounds of the accord.

Iran last week took a hard stance, suggesting everything discussed in previous rounds of diplomacy could be renegotiated. In the midst of the negotiations, the U.N.s nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran had begun enriching uranium up to 20% purity at its underground facility at Fordo a site where enrichment is not permitted under the deal.

Despite Irans claims that its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only, the continued advances in its atomic program have further raised the stakes.

Last weeks talks in Vienna came after a hiatus of more than five months and were the first in which Irans new hard-line government participated. The United States, no longer a party to the agreement, was not in the room and negotiated remotely through mediators.

A senior U.S. State Department official said over the weekend that negotiators had expected Iran to show seriousness at the talks. He said that even Russia and China, important trading outlets for Iran that have traditionally taken a softer line, were concerned about the prospects for a deal.

Every day that goes by is a day where we come closer to the conclusion that they dont have in mind a return to the deal, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters on the U.S. assessment.

European negotiators also expressed frustration. In a joint statement, senior diplomats from Germany, Britain and France said Iran has fast-forwarded its nuclear program and backtracked on diplomatic progress.

Unclear how these new gaps can be closed in a realistic time frame on the basis of Iranian drafts, they said.

Mikhail Ulyanov, a senior Russian diplomat in Vienna, said that Iran had offered a radical revision of previous understandings.

Technically, amendments are always possible, he said. However, it is desirable that such amendments ... do not turn into a roadblock to progress.

On Sunday, Irans Foreign Ministry issued a nine-page document that appeared to slightly step back from its tough positions.

Other parties only need to show political determination and express readiness to take necessary practical steps, the document read. Then, ways will be opened for the conclusion of a deal and settlement of differences.

But the document gave few specifics on what Iran might have in mind.

That is unlikely to satisfy Israel, which has returned to its role as possible spoiler.

Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy and it strongly opposed the 2015 deal.

It says it wants an improved deal that places tighter restrictions on Irans nuclear program and addresses Irans long-range missile program and its support for hostile proxies along Israels borders.

Israel also says that the negotiations must be accompanied by a credible military threat to ensure that Iran does not delay indefinitely.

Bennett said Israel was using the time between rounds to persuade the Americans to use a different toolkit against Irans nuclear program, without elaborating.

The head of Israels Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, was traveling to Washington on Sunday, and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a former military chief, heads there later this week.

Israels figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, delivered an uncharacteristically blunt message Sunday as he welcomed the new American ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides.

If the international community does not take a vigorous stance on this issue, Israel will do so. Israel will protect itself, Herzog said.

Despite Israels support for Trumps withdrawal in 2018, prominent voices in the country are now saying in retrospect that the move was a blunder.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily Sunday that pulling out was a delusional decision that allowed the Iranians to move forward quickly in the direction of becoming a nuclear threshold state.

Barak, who reportedly favored a military strike when he served as Netanyahus defense minister early last decade, said Netanyahu, who is now Israels opposition leader, had failed to put together with the U.S. a Plan B in the form of a surgical military operation.

Over the past decade, Iran has greatly complicated any military operation by scattering its nuclear sites and hiding some deep underground. Israeli officials insist military action is still feasible.

Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow and Iran expert at Israels Institute for National Security Studies, said the Israeli threats should be taken seriously, especially in light of questions over Americas willingness to use force in the region.

I think the United States doesnt understand our red lines, he said. They think were bluffing, but were not.

Over the weekend, Iran said it had tested a surface-to-air missile defense system near its Natanz nuclear facility. Late Saturday, people leaving nearby saw a light in the sky and heard a loud explosion.

Any threat from the enemies will be met with a decisive and firm response, state TV quoted Lt. Cmdr. Ali Moazeni as saying.

___

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed reporting.

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As Iran nuclear talks hit snags, Israel seeks harder US line ...