Depending on who you ask, a nuclear agreement between Iran and the United states is either a non-starter or almost a done deal. <\/p>\n
Last week, US President Donald Trump said Washington was \u201cvery close\u201d to reaching an agreement with Iran over not making \u201cnuclear dust,\u201d as the US president terms it. <\/p>\n
But in Tehran, Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seemed to rubbish the chances of a new accord with Washington, in a post attributed to him on his website Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Sanctions on Iran have strangled the country\u2019s economy, cutting off Tehran from most banking and commercial ties with the West and leaving the country reliant on geopolitical allies like Russia and China. <\/p>\n
On Iran\u2019s streets, Western brands are becoming ever harder to find but copycat logos are common, appealing to a nostalgia for a rosier period of international relations. <\/p>\n
Cars are typically Iranian or Chinese-made and the country\u2019s aviation industry in particular has suffered from nullified aircraft purchase licenses and banned imports of much-needed spare parts. <\/p>\n
Russia and China have looked to profit from the West\u2019s more belligerent use of economic punishments, with Moscow allegedly trading nuclear and space know-how for Iranian missiles and drones to attack Ukraine \u2013 even though Iran has consistently denied giving drones to Russia for use in Ukraine \u2013 and Beijing, the US says, a key source for fuel components for Iran\u2019s military missile program. <\/p>\n
In a March Washington Post opinion article, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pitched the US president on the economic promise that Tehran offers. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the US administration\u2019s and congressional impediments, not Iran, that have kept American enterprises away from the trillion-dollar opportunity that access to our economy represents,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cTry not to talk nonsense,\u201d Khamenei told US negotiators in the post on his website early this week, repeating the Iranian position that Tehran will forge ahead with uranium enrichment for civilian purposes if Iran so desires. <\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s enrichment of uranium, a nuclear fuel that can be weaponized if purified to high levels, has emerged as the biggest sticking point in the talks. Iran insists it will never relinquish its right to enrich. <\/p>\n
Khamenei will have the final say on any possible deal and his public pronouncements will set the tone for any Iranian interactions with Washington. <\/p>\n
As regards US demands that Iran completely stop enrichment of uranium, he said that \u201cafter 30 years of investing they (Iran\u2019s leaders) can\u2019t simply back off and say, \u2018it\u2019s all yours.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLook what happened to Libya. Libya gave them everything and they still bombed them,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s all an excuse from the West.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Iran reach a Libya-style nuclear deal with the US, which in 2003 dismantled the North African nation\u2019s nuclear program in the hopes of ushering in a new era of relations with the US after its two-decade oil embargo on Muammar Qaddafi\u2019s regime. <\/p>\n
Following denuclearization, Libya eventually descended into civil war after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Qaddafi. Iranian officials have long warned that a similar deal would be intended to weaken Iran and eventually overthrow its regime. <\/p>\n
As Israel escalates its bloody campaign in Gaza, eyes in Jerusalem are also firmly fixed on the US-Iranian talks. <\/p>\n
In comments Thursday, Netanyahu said there is \u201cfull coordination\u201d with the US on Iran as the Trump administration pursues a new nuclear deal with Tehran. <\/p>\n
He said any deal would have to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and stop the enrichment of uranium. <\/p>\n
Iranians were somber in the face of the risk of such an escalation. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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