TEHRAN (Bazaar) –Nader Entessar, Professor Emeritus of Political Science from university of South Alabama says that the nuclear deal has always been a tool to gain more and more concessions from Iran without fulfilling Washington's obligations, now or in the future.
“I seriously doubt the Biden administration's seriousness in returning to the JCPOA,” Entessar told Bazaar.
Following is the full text of the Bazaar interview with Professor Entessar:
Q: Jarrett Blanc, the U.S. deputy special envoy for Iran and one of the main players in the indirect negotiations with Iran's nuclear program, plans to soon leave the State Department and Robert Malley's team and join the Department of Energy. What is the reason for this change?
A: I don't know the exact reason for Jarrett Blanc's departure from Robert Malley's team at this time. However, these types of changes are normal, especially for people who are on loan from one department to another department in the US government. We have had changes in Malley's team in the past couple of years. For example, Richard Nephew, a chief architect of the Iran sanctions regime, left the team several months ago, as did Ariane Tabatabai, a Senior Advisor in the US State Department.
Q: Axios sees this change as another sign that the Biden administration believes that there is no way to return to the JCPOA at the moment. What is your opinion?
A: What Axios has reported may indeed be true, but as I mentioned in my previous answer, it could simply mean that Jarrett Blanc had decided that it was now the right time to go return to his home base in the US Department of Energy. We have to remember that, unlike Iran, the US relies on a large number of experts from different fields and departments in its negotiations with Iran. Therefore, we should not read too much into personnel changes in the negotiating team.
Q: The leaving of Blanc can be seen as a sign of the Biden administration's lack of focus on returning to the JCPOA. If so, when are they willing to start negotiations?
A: I seriously doubt the Biden administration's seriousness in returning to the JCPOA. The nuclear deal has always been a tool to gain more and more concessions from Iran without fulfilling Washington's obligations, now or in the future.
Q: The Hebrew newspaper, Israel Hum, wrote in a report that the US is making contact with Iran on various issues, and it is possible to examine the possibilities of a limited agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue. What is your assessment?
A: The US and Iran have always maintained their channels of communication via third parties, and this is true today s well. If there is an agreement between Washington and Tehran, it will not be a return to the moribund JCPOA. Instead, it will be a limited and step-by-step agreement. But even reaching such a limited agreement may not come about anytime soon.
Q: Ned Price, the spokesperson of the US Department of State, said the US has ways to communicate with Iran regarding several worrying issues, including the issue of the release of American citizens detained there. The nuclear agreement has not been on Washington's agenda for months. We do not focus on this issue, but rather on the growing military involvement of Tehran and Moscow and Russia's war in Ukraine. Do you think that if a limited agreement is to be reached, the United States will link the issues of military cooperation between Iran and Russia to it?
A: Yes. If indeed Iran and the United States reach a limited agreement, the growing Russo-Iranian relations, especially in military realms, will be the main point of interest for the US side. The Biden administration wants to keep both Russia and Iran weak, albeit for different reasons, and therefore will push hard to sever Iranian-Russian military and burgeoning economic ties.
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