Iran nuclear deal: What are major issues bedevilling talks on its revival?

While months of negotiations have entered a crucial stage, Iran and the United States are struggling to overcome divisions on three major issues in indirect talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Calling on the United States to show flexibility to resolve three remaining issues, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian responded to the European Union's "final" draft text to save the deal.

Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC):

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Washington's refusal to remove its elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the US Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) list broke down talks in which a broad outline of the revived deal was essentially agreed upon in March.

Reporting directly to Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, IRGC is Iran's most powerful military force with political clout and an industrial empire.

In order to give diplomacy a chance, the demand had been taken off the table in June and Iran agreed to discuss the matter once the 2015 pact is revived.

When Iran demanded the removal of sanctions on some economic units of the Guards in return, the US said that Tehran was making “unacceptable demands” going beyond the text of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Binding guarantees:

Although Iran is seeking guarantees that "no US administration" will renege on a revived pact, President Joe Biden cannot promise this because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

In return for relief from sanctions by the US, European Union and United Nations, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in 2015.

Due to opposition from Republican senators, US President Barrack Obama could not make the pact a treaty.

If Washington ditches the deal again, financial penalties should be levied on Western companies, according to Tehran's proposed solutions.

Uranium traces:

Washington and other Western powers view Tehran's demand of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drop its claims about Tehran's nuclear work as outside the scope of reviving the deal.

Failing Iran for failing to explain uranium traces found at three undeclared sites, the West imposed further sanctions on the country.

After removing essentially all the IAEA's monitoring equipment installed under the 2015 deal, Iran reacted by further expanding its underground uranium enrichment by installing cascades of more efficient advanced centrifuges.

Calling the move a potentially a "fatal blow" to the revival of the agreement, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said that as part of the core monitoring in Iran that predates the 2015 deal, more than 40 cameras would keep operating.

(With inputs from agencies)

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