Hot Take: Road back to Iran nuclear deal includes key stop in Russia

Malley on road for nuclear talks. US Iran Envoy Robert Malley visits Moscow and Paris this week for talks on "Iran's nuclear program and the need to quickly reach and implement an understanding on a mutual return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," according to the Department of State.

Background. The Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018. The Biden administration has given top priority to negotiating Iran’s return to the agreement, but the last, inconclusive meeting among the JCPOA parties — including the EU, Russia and China — was held on June 20. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was sworn in on Aug. 3, seems in no rush to resume the talks. In a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sept. 5, Raisi said, "We have no objection to useful negotiations, but the program and result of the negotiations should be the lifting of sanctions against Iran. Negotiation for negotiation is useless."

‘Seriously undermined.’ Iran continues to stockpile highly enriched uranium that could be used to make nuclear weapons in violation of the JCPOA, according to a confidential report this week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN atomic watchdog organization. The IAEA says its monitoring and verification activities have been "seriously undermined" by Iran’s actions. More than one month ago, on Aug. 4, the day after Raisi’s inauguration, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the talks "cannot drag on indefinitely" because at some point "the advantages that the JCPOA would convey would be outweighed and outpaced by the advancements in Iran’s nuclear program."