Iran accuses US of incoherence at nuclear talks

ANKARA (AA) – A top Iranian security official on Wednesday criticized the US government for lacking “coherence” for making political decisions at ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna.

The remarks on Twitter by Ali Shamkhani, the head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), came shortly after a group of 33 Republican US senators led by Ted Cruz co-signed a letter “rebuking the (US) administration’s negotiations for a new Iran nuclear deal.”

“Voices from the US government show that there is no coherence in the country to make political decisions in the direction of advancement in the Vienna Talks,” Shamkhani said, adding that the administration of US President Joe Biden “cannot pay for its internal disputes by violating Iran’s legal rights.”

On Tuesday, Senator Cruz, who opposes the 2015 nuclear deal along with 32 other Republican senators, sent a letter dated Monday saying that any agreement “related to Iran’s nuclear program which is not a treaty ratified by the Senate is subject to being reversed, and indeed will likely be torn up, in the opening days of the next Presidential administration, as early as January 2025.”

The Iran nuclear deal — officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — was signed in 2015 by Iran, the US, China, Russia, France, the UK, Germany, and the EU.

Under the agreement, Tehran committed to limit its nuclear activity to civilian purposes and in return world powers agreed to drop economic sanctions against Iran.

The US, under former President Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, prompting Tehran to stop complying with the deal.