Analyst: Iran was tricked by Russians in nuclear talks

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh says the current status of the Vienna talks shows Iran and the United States have lost the opportunity of reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement.

He says the agreement has been overshadowed by the interests of others including Russians, Israel, and some regional countries.

Falahatpisheh says Russians killed time when an agreement was at hand in the Vienna talks and effectively pushed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action into collapse.

He made the comments in an interview with Qarne No news website ahead of a vote in the International Atomic Energy Agency on a resolution tabled by the US, France, Germany and the UK against Iran’s nuclear activities.

The former lawmaker says the vote can set the stage for the return of parties to the Vienna talks if the IAEA Board of Governors chooses diplomacy over referring Iran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council.

Falahatpisheh warns, however, that any alternative to diplomacy will strengthen the extremist groups in the US and Iran, who are opposed to the revival of the JCPOA and will negatively affect the prospects of its revival.

He says this is specially the case as the energy crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the need for alternatives to Russian energy are now creating new interests both for Russia and other regional countries.

This, he says, has become an obstacle to the nuclear deal and its potential facilitation of Iran’s return to the energy market