Iranians Abruptly Walk Out of Nuke Talks

They say it was because "the Obama administration announced tighter sanctions," but those "tighter" sanctions were effectively toothless. The Iranians know that Obama is disposed to give them whatever they want, and so they walked out of the nuke talks to intimidate him into pressuring the Republicans to drop all talk of new sanctions. And given the weakness of both Obama and the Republicans, it is virtually certain that the Iranians will soon get their way.

"Iranians Pull Out of Nuke Talks: Walkout follows tighter sanctions," by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, December 13, 2013

Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant / AP

Iranian negotiators abruptly ended nuclear talks with Western powers in Geneva on Friday just a day after the Obama administration announced tighter sanctions on Tehran.

Iran had threatened that new or tighter sanctions would nullify the recently reached interim deal, which is not yet in effect.

The Iranians abruptly “halted” the talks and left Geneva so that they could consult with higher-level officials about how to proceed with talks following the tighter sanctions, which were announced Thursday morning by the U.S. Treasury Department.

“The Iranian negotiators interrupted the talks with the [P5+1] for consultations in Tehran,” a negotiator said on Thursday, according to Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency.

“America’s move is against the spirit of the Geneva deal,” Iranian chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi reportedly told the Iranian press. “We are evaluating the situation and will make the appropriate response.”

Iranian and Western negotiators were in the middle of talks about ways to implement the interim agreement when the sanctions were announced, according to experts.

The “wild thing about today’s action [is that] Treasury officials [are] negotiating terms of [the Joint Plan of Action] w/ Iran right now in Vienna,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies expert Jonathan Schanzer tweeted on Thursday afternoon.

The White House told the Washington Free Beacon early Friday that it would address the development later in the day.

The interim accord reached in Geneva created the framework for a final deal that would halt portions of Iran’s contested uranium enrichment program for six months.

With final negotiations on the six-month freeze in limbo, it remains unclear when exactly Iran will begin halting its nuclear work.

Tehran would receive about $7 billion in sanctions relief under the accord and potentially be given the ability to continue its enrichment activities under a final deal.

The issue of new sanctions has been a particular irritant to the Iranians, who hope to reverse all of the West’s economic penalties.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill had been trying to increase sanctions on Iran before the end of the year. However, the White House and its Democratic allies on Thursday successfully prevented the measure from coming to a vote.

The move was accompanied by Treasury’s sanctions announcement, which was viewed by experts as a middle ground meant to appease sanctions supporters in Congress.

“This was an action taken by the executive,” FDD’s Schanzer told the Free Beacon on Friday. “What this shows is that the White House is trying to on the one hand put a halt on new sanctions to placate the Iranians but enforce existing sanctions to placate Congress and their constituents. It’s a fine line.”

House lawmakers also launched a last minute bid late Thursday to redefine the parameters of the Geneva talks.

The new bipartisan resolution seeks to ensure that Iran fully dismantles its nuclear program and halts all weapons activities.