Washington said it was ‘encouraged’ by recent concessions by Tehran amid rocky negotiations to revive the nuclear pact
According to the US State Department, it’s “seriously reviewing”Iran may offer to compromise to the nuclear accord with world powers. It did so after reports claimed that Iran had dropped a demand for the removal of an elite unit from the US terrorist list.
During a Monday press briefing, State Department spokesman Ned Price signaled that officials were still considering Iran’s latest offer, but added that while there were still problems to be resolved, a final agreement is inching closer.
“We are encouraged by the fact that Iran appears to have dropped some of its nonstarter demands, such as lifting the [Foreign Terror Organization] designation of the IRGC,” Price said, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
“But as you’ve heard from us over the past couple days, there are still some outstanding issues that must be resolved, some gaps that must be bridged. And that’s part of the reason why a deal is closer now than it was two weeks ago,”Note that price was added to reflect administration “will respond as soon as we have a response prepared.”
The IRGC classification has been a problem in these fraught negotiations since the beginning. However, a US senior official said last week to CNN that Tehran had walked away from the demand. A claim which was confirmed later by the Times of Israel. In 2019, former President Donald Trump placed the elite military unit on the terror blacklist. This was the first time Washington has classified a government part as terrorist.
Having helped to mediate the 16-month nuclear negotiations, the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell weighed in on Iran’s latest offer on Monday, calling it “reasonable”While still expressing hope that an agreement could be reached with the United States,
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