US, Israel intensify rhetoric in nuke talks

VIENNA－Talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed on Thursday with the United States and Israel ramping up rhetorical pressure on Teheran about the possible economic or military consequences if diplomacy fails.

Though several US officials said they preferred a diplomatic solution, they also conveyed their willingness to take a tougher stance if need be.

Iran's top negotiator said Teheran was sticking to the stance it laid out last week, when the talks broke off with European and US officials accusing Iran of making sweeping new demands and of reneging on the compromises that were worked out earlier this year.

Reuters on Friday cited a European source as saying that world powers will assess over the next few days whether Iran is serious in nuclear negotiations after it indicated it was ready to continue talks on the basis of texts that had been agreed at the last round in June.

Working groups to discuss sanctions Washington might lift and the nuclear curbs Teheran needs to observe convene on Friday.

"Iran's seriousness is obvious. See who has canceled other meetings and is in Vienna and who is not,"Iran's top negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani told Reuters.

His comments suggested he was alluding to the United States' chief negotiator Rob Malley, who is not expected to arrive in the Austrian capital until the weekend.

"Iran underlined that it is seriously continuing the talks based on its previous position," Bagheri Kani said.

"Negotiations on Iran's (new) drafts are going on," Bagheri Kani added.

"Given the ongoing advances in Iran's nuclear program, the president has asked his team to be prepared in the event that diplomacy fails and we must turn to other options," said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki.

The indirect US-Iranian talks in Vienna, in which other diplomats from the remaining parties－France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China－to a now tattered 2015 deal shuttle between them, has Teheran aiming to get both sides to resume full compliance with the accord.

Under that accord, Iran limited its nuclear program in return for relief from US, European Union and United Nations sanctions.

Last week's discussions were the first after a five-month hiatus due to the election of Iran's new government under President Ebrahim Raisi.

Western officials have claimed that Iran has abandoned any compromises it had made in the previous six rounds of talks, pocketed those made by others, and demanded more last week.

Iran wants all sanctions, which were imposed by the US after former president Donald Trump ditched the deal in 2018, to be lifted in a verifiable process.

The US said it would take a few days to discern whether Iran was willing to be flexible, and US officials hinted at the economic and military costs Iran could face if there is no diplomatic solution.

Reuters reported that meetings in Washington with Israel's visiting defense chief on Thursday were expected to include discussions about possible military exercises to prepare for a worst-case scenario to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities should diplomacy fail.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the start of the meeting with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Gantz that Iran had failed to offer constructive diplomatic engagement in talks that President Joe Biden had hoped would revive a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by his predecessor. Austin said Biden was "prepared to turn to other options" if the current US policy on Iran fails.

The Pentagon declined comment on the Reuters report, which also disclosed an Oct 25 briefing by Defense Department officials to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on the full range of military options to ensure that Iran would not be able to produce a nuclear weapon.

"I will tell you this: We routinely conduct exercises and training with our Israeli counterparts and I have nothing to announce to, or speak to, or point to, or speculate about today," said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby during a news briefing.

Agencies via Xinhua