French Foreign minister Catherine Colonna holds a press conference in New York on September 19, 2022. (AFP)
NEW YORK — France’s Foreign minister said Monday that Iran would not receive a better offer to revive a nuclear deal with world powers, and it is now up to Tehran to decide before the window to find a solution closes.
“There will not be a better offer on the table and it’s up to Iran to take the right decisions,” Catherine Colonna told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York, adding that no initiatives were underway to unblock the situation.
She added that the United States and its European partners have an identical position on the question of resolving an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding uranium traces at three sites in Iran, an issue that Tehran has demanded should be closed before returning to the deal.
The talks — at a standstill since March — have proved even more difficult than expected because of stakeholders’ respective attitudes throughout the talks.
This was shown through the vote of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors on June 8 on a resolution criticizing Tehran for its lack of cooperation and for switching off several surveillance cameras installed in its nuclear sites, calling on it to comply with its “legal obligations.”
Generally, Iran has continued to use the expansion of its nuclear program as leverage during the talks. According to IAEA Director Rafael Grossi, the Islamic Republic has 43.1 kilograms of 60-percent-enriched uranium as of June, although Iran claims it will use this for energy purposes.
“It is only a matter of time,” Grossi said, before it accumulates enough for a bomb. The US, for its part, refused to play the de-escalation card, maintaining extremely harsh sanctions on the Iranian economy.