Raisi says Tehran ‘transparent’ about nuclear activities: US getting ‘closer’ to giving up on Iran N-deal, says Blinken

RAMSTEIN, Germany: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Wednesday that time was running out for Iran to return to a nuclear deal after a scathing report by the UN atomic watchdog.

"I’m not going to put a date on it but we are getting closer to the point at which a strict return to compliance with the JCPOA does not reproduce the benefits that that agreement achieved," Blinken told reporters in Germany, referring to the deal by its acronym.

The IAEA released a strongly-worded report on Tuesday saying monitoring tasks in Iran have been "seriously undermined" after Tehran suspended some of the UN agency’s inspections of its nuclear activities.

Germany also said Tehran’s suggestion that talks aimed at reviving the stalled deal were unlikely to resume for two to three months was "far too long," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

The German minister said he had telephoned his new counterpart in Tehran to get him to "return more swiftly to the negotiating table". Nevertheless, Maas said Berlin still expects the new Iranian government to continue to support results from negotiations that had taken place so far.

Ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi became Iran’s president in early August, taking over from moderate Hassan Rouhani, the principal architect on the Iranian side of the 2015 agreement.

The 2015 deal offered Iran an easing of Western and UN sanctions in return for tight controls on its nuclear programme, monitored by the UN. In retaliation for Trump’s withdrawal three years ago and his subsequent imposition of swingeing sanctions, Iran in effect abandoned most of its commitments under the deal.

But Trump’s successor President Joe Biden wants to bring Washington back into the agreement. Earlier, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said on Wednesday that his country was "transparent" about its nuclear activities, the day after the UN atomic watchdog criticised it for lack of cooperation.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran’s serious cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency is a clear example of Iran’s will to be transparent about its nuclear activities," Raisi told European Council chief Charles Michel by phone, according to an Iranian presidency statement.

"Of course, if the IAEA has a non-constructive approach, it’s unreasonable to expect a constructive response from Iran," Raisi added. "What’s more, non-constructive actions of course upset the negotiation process." On Tuesday the IAEA said its monitoring at Iranian nuclear sites had been "seriously undermined" by Tehran’s suspension of some inspections since February.

The exchange of words comes as talks remain locked in Vienna on saving the 2015 deal with world powers that gave Iran relief from international sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

The deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was torpedoed by former US president Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to withdraw the United States from it in 2018 and impose sanctions.