Iranian Nuclear Talks Resume
Iranian nuclear talks resumed yesterday as world leaders meet in Vienna to try and find a solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
Representatives from the United States and other world powers including Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, and representatives from the European Union have been meeting with Iran in an attempts to curb Iran’s nuclear program, which threatens to destabilize the Middle East and is cause for concern for the United Nations Security Council as well. The nations participating in the Iranian nuclear talks want measures in place to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program will only be used for peaceful purposes.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to join the negotiations in Vienna later this week and has said that he has no predictions for the outcome but urged that it was imperative to work towards peaceful solutions as the Iranian nuclear talks resume.
“It’s imperative, obviously, that Iran work with us in all possible effort to prove to the world the [nuclear] program is peaceful.”
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been less willing to negotiate, blaming any failure to reach an agreement on the other countries’ “greediness” and warning them not to put too many demands on Iran.
While Iran has insisted that its nuclear development program is for developing nuclear power plants in Iran for civilian purposes, many are not convinced and believe that the Iranian nuclear program will eventually lead to serious security issues and the development of nuclear weapons. Since the beginning of the Iranian nuclear program, Iran has been under heavy sanctions from major world powers — which has done little to curb the growth of the program.
The Iranian nuclear talks have until Monday to reach an agreement between the nations. If the November 24 deadline is not met, there is a possibility of the Iranian nuclear talks resuming under an extension; however, an extension would be met with heavy opposition and criticism both from the U.S. Congress in Washington as well as leaders in Iran.
One of the key sticking points that negotiators face as the nuclear talks resume is a requirement that Iran reduces the number of centrifuges that are used to enrich uranium, a necessary step in both atomic weapons development and nuclear power. Iran has a long history of aggression and human rights violations, making the possibility of a nuclear Iran a serious security threat. The U.N. Security Council and other nations want Iran to limit the number of centrifuges to a low enough number that United Nations monitors will be able to detect if Iran begins to work on a weapons program instead of the civil one that Iran claims to be developing. Iran has thus far refused to comply and is instead demanding an immediate lift of sanctions, which the nations in question are only willing to do slowly if they see that Iran is indeed cooperating for a peaceful outcome.
To ease tensions and allow for a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, leaders in Iran’s capital of Tehran agreed to halt their nuclear program until the November 24 deadline. However, if no agreement is reached, they will resume and the other global powers have warned that this is likely to lead to military action in the interest of protecting the world from a nuclear Iran — making the Iranian nuclear talks the best chance for peace.
