Seventh round of talks on restoration of Iran nuclear deal begin in Vienna
The Have Beens of the West are still in denial mode and therefore a Joint Commission of Iran and the five other international mediators (Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, and France) have gathered for a meeting in Vienna without inviting India for the meeting.
Whether it is liked or not, in the nuclear domain, India is no longer technically or scientifically inferior to any other country. Yes, India may not be having a huge arsenal of nuclear weapon because we do not require them in large numbers. Destroying key cities and certain military bases of any current or future adversaries will be more than enough as far as India is concerned.
Therefore it would have been prudent for the Joint Commission to invite India for the meeting, especially so when Iran is a close neighbour of India and a friend too.
Without India joining in it would be meaningless to discuss ways of restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program. At least the Russian Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov should bring this out. From now onwards the four Cardinal points of the new multipolar world are USA, Russia, China and India and this is neither a descending list or an ascending list.
The meeting of the Joint Commission on JCPOA with the participation of the new Iranian team led by Bagheri Kani has just started
On Sunday, Russia, Iran and China held informal consultations in Vienna to clarify the negotiating position of Iran’s new delegation, Ulyanov said earlier. Apart from that, other participants in the talks also held informal consultations.
The JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France…. This body too has lost its value because India is not a member ) and Germany in 2015. Under the deal, Iran undertook to curb its nuclear activities and place them under the total control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange for the abandonment of the sanctions imposed previously by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the United States over its nuclear program.
The future of the deal was called into question after the United States’ unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and Washington’s unilateral oil export sanctions against Teheran. Iran argued that all the other participants, Europeans in the first place, were ignoring some of their own obligations in the economic sphere, thus making the deal in its current shape senseless. This said, it began to gradually scale down its commitments under the deal.
Meanwhile, US’ incumbent President Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled his readiness to return the US to the deal.
The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has had six offline meetings in Vienna since April to find ways to restore the nuclear deal in its original form. The sides discuss prospects for the United States’ possible return to the deal, steps needed to ensure full compliance with the deal’s terms by Iran, and issues of lifting the anti-Iranian sanctions. The sides took a break in late June but the resumption of talks was delayed due to the presidential election in Iran and the formation of a new government in that country.
Well time has come when others may ignore India at their own peril.
