Blog Post
from
Iran Matters
Highlights:
- Iran and the West agreed to extend nuclear negotiations until June 30, 2015. Talks will resume next month.
- A group of 43 senators urged President Barack Obama “to cease efforts to circumvent Congress” in nuclear talks and asserted that an unsuitable agreement would not withstand new Republican-controlled Congress, which sits in January
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday, when extension appeared inevitable: “The right deal that is needed is to dismantle Iran’s capacity to make atomic bombs and only then dismantle the sanctions. Since that’s not in the offing, this result is better, a lot better.”
Diplomacy and nuclear issue
- Iran and the P5+1 agreed to extend negotiations deadline by seven months to June 30, 2015. Diplomats will resume negotiations in December with aim to reach political agreement by March 1, 2015 and decide technical details by June 30, 2015. (New York Times, 11/24; Washington Post, 11/24)
- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address that Iran “has achieved a significant victory,” noting that “negotiations will lead to a deal, sooner or later.” (AP, 11/24)
- Rouhani: “One phase is about the behind-the-curtain issues, where ideas are made closer and talks happen. In this phase there has been good progress. The other phase is when those agreements are put on paper and turn into a final, ultimate deal in writing. We still have some distance from this second phase.”
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters: “We now see the path toward potentially resolving some issues that have been intractable… In these last days in Vienna we have made real and substantial progress.”
- Kerry: “We would be fools to walk away from a situation where the breakout time has been extended rather than narrowed.”
- Iran has still not provided answers to the IAEA’s inquiry into Possible Military Dimensions. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said: “We are not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran.” (IAEA, 11/20)
- Iran responded that it would let inspectors into site in Marivan, Iran, but not to Parchin. (Reuters, 11/20)
- Iran in past two weeks reduced its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to about 7,400 kg. (Reuters, 11/24)
- Head of Iran’s Basij force made rare positive comments about nuclear talks, saying that “positions that the team has announced in recent days are appropriate.” “Thank God, the [negotiating] team has so far maintained our dignity and we expect this to continue,” Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi added. (Financial Times, 11/18)
- In separate comments, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, armed forces chief of staff, praised Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister: “Mr. Zarif and his sincere colleagues have played a jihad-like role in the negotiations.”
Sanctions and Iran’s economy
- Per extension of JPOA, Iran will receive $700 million/month in previously frozen funds. (Foreign Policy, 11/24)
Iranian domestic politics
- In a graduation event at a military academy, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the “world counts on our Armed Forces and it takes them seriously.” (Office of the Supreme Leader, 11/17)
- Parliament rejected for the fourth time Rouhani’s nominee for minister of science, research and higher education. Fakhreddin Danesh-Ashtiani’s candidacy was rejected by vote of 171 to 70. (Reuters, 11/18)
- Rouhani announced Mohammad Farhadi as his next candidate. Farhadi is head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society. (Tehran Times, 11/19)
- Khamenei permitted the caretaker minister to continue service beyond normal three month limit, while the jostling continues. (Tehran Times, 11/22)
- An Iranian-Canadian blogger imprisoned for six years for blasphemy, obscenity and seditious propaganda was released. Hossein Derakhshan was a prominent figure in Iran’s blogosphere and, after brief trip to Israel, was suspected of espionage. Khamenei approved Derakhshan’s release without providing a reason. (New York Times, 11/21)
US-Iran relations
- A group of 43 senators urged Obama “to cease efforts to circumvent Congress” in nuclear talks and asserted that unsuitable agreement would not withstand new Republican-controlled Congress, which sits in January. (Letter to Obama, 11/19)
- Letter: “Unless the White House genuinely engages with Congress, we see no way that any agreement consisting of your administration’s current proposals to Iran will endure in the 114th Congress and after your presidential term ends.”
Geopolitics and Iran
- Sunni and Shia clerics gathered in the holy city of Qom for a conference about how to counter the rise of ISIL. (Associated Press, 11/24)
- The U.N. issued condemnation of Iran’s human rights record, noting substantial increase in number of executions. In response, Iran’s justice minister said: “Anyone who distributes illicit drugs and contaminates numerous people is a corrupt person and deserves execution.” (AFP, 11/19; Tehran Times, 11/19)
- China’s public security minister visited Iran to discuss counterterrorism cooperation. (Reuters, 11/17)
- ISIL militants released photos appearing to show Iranian Mohajer-4 drone crashed in Iraq. ISIL claimed it shot drone down. (Daily Beast, 11/17)
- Iranian naval forces successfully repelled a pirate attack on an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. (Press TV, 11/24)
Israel
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, when extension appeared inevitable: “The right deal that is needed is to dismantle Iran’s capacity to make atomic bombs and only then dismantle the sanctions. Since that’s not in the offing, this result is better, a lot better.” (BBC News, 11/24)
- AIPAC has been “unusually quiet” in run-up to nuclear deadline, apparently waiting for results of latest round of talks. (Reuters, 11/21)
- Intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz said: “We are not doing any lobbying at this time.”
“Red lines,” “points of no return,” and military strikes
- No significant developments.
Uncertain or dubious claims
- No significant claims.
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