A renewed Iran nuclear deal may be closer than ever, but problems remain

Iran appears the most optimistic it’s been in years about finally clinching an agreement on a renewed version of the 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. and other foreign powers.

Iranian negotiating team adviser Mohammad Marandi said on Monday that “we’re closer than we’ve been before” to securing a deal and that the “remaining issues are not very difficult to resolve.” And the European Union’s “final text” proposal for the deal, submitted last week, has been approved by the U.S., which says it’s ready to quickly seal the agreement if Iran accepts it.

Still, there are obstacles to rescuing the Obama-era pact, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for a range of limits on its nuclear program. Iranian negotiators responded to the EU’s proposal, pointing out the remaining issues that may yet prove impossible to reconcile.

And the stakes are high: the more time goes by, the more Iran progresses in the advancement of its nuclear technology — far beyond the scope of what the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the 2015 deal’s original signatories say is acceptable. 

That could risk triggering an all-out war in the Middle East, as Israel has threatened military action against Iran if it develops nuclear weapons capability. 

Already in the spring of 2021, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said of Iran that “only countries making bombs are reaching this level” of nuclear enrichment. 

With a revived nuclear deal, the U.S. and the deal’s other signatories — France, the U.K., Germany, China and Russia, known collectively as the P5+1 — aim to contain the nuclear program and prevent what many warn could be a nuclear weapons crisis. Iran maintains that its aims are peaceful and that its actions fall within the country’s sovereign rights.