Just Ran: US says Russia should back down on written guarantees sanctions demand in #IranTalks or they'll seek alternative agreement with Iran, excluding Moscow. wsj.com/articles/u-s-w… -1-
A senior State Department official said if #Russia presses its guarantee demands or doesn’t reply “in the coming week,” Washington would need to “very quickly consider an alternative path.” -2-
U.S. official says would need to quickly explore an alternative deal if Russia won't back down, given pressing time constraints. Too early to say if that would be interim deal or a JCPOA replica. At this point, "wouldn’t rule anything out.” -3-
Senior State Department Official says that beyond the narrow carve-outs for Russian nuclear-related tasks under JCPOA, which Moscow had originally demanded, it won't negotiate broader Ukraine-sanctions exemptions with #Russia. -4-
“I don’t see the scope for going beyond what is within the confines of the JCPOA,” the official said. ”I think it’s pretty safe to say that there is no room for making exemptions beyond those.” -5-
Senior U.S. official says there are "only a handful of issues left principally between Iran and the United States and chiefly about the scope of sanctions relief." Says Russia's demands "most serious stumbling block" preventing deal. -6-
“These are not new issues. these were old issues that of course we have not yet been able to resolve. But that we felt were – whose resolution we felt was within reach. No guarantee but we felt we were making progress.” -7-
U.S. official says Washington's preference remains to return to JCPOA if Russia backs away from its broader demands. Narrow nuclear-related guarantees allowing Russia to do what needed under JCPOA, manageable. wsj.com/articles/u-s-w… -8-
One footnote and point. Conversation quoted here was shortly before last night's Erbil attack took place though I have no reason to believe it affects the approach. Also, a new deal, even if a replica will certainly trigger INARA though I think that would have happened anyway.-9-
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