Reuters Report On Nuclear Talks Gets Short Shrift In Iran

An “exclusive” report by Reuters Thursday on nuclear talks in Vienna was “misinformation disguised as reporting,” an Iranian spokesman tweeted Friday.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, who speaks for the foreign ministry, tweeted that the “final deal to let the US [United States] return to the JCPOA will be far from the unsourced spin making the rounds.” The Reuters news agency report, citing anonymous officials, claimed a series of sequenced steps would be taken in restoring the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), the 2015 nuclear deal Iran reached with world powers.

“Expect more spin as we approach final days,” Khatibzadeh warned. The spokesman pointed out that restoring the JCPOA would not be a bilateral arrangement between Iran and the US, meaning it needed endorsement by all JCPOA signatories – China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

Russia's chief negotiator to the Vienna talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, in a tweet Thursday wrote that opponents of restoring the JCPOA were "becoming more proactive in the public space" and "trying to create an unhealthy atmosphere."

Reuters on Thursday claimed that a draft text of a plan to restore the JCPOA included sequenced steps including the US initially withdrawing threats to punish third parties holding Iranian assets and Iran stopping enrichment above 5 percent. The report was unclear as to whether such steps depended on prior agreement on full JCPOA restoration.

Psychological warfare

According to Reuters, the first phase of returning to the JCPOA would not include the US lifting its threat of sanctions against third parties buying Iranian oil but would see this threat lifted against South Korean banks, allowing them to transfer $7 billion owed to Iran. But in accepting that the final agreement was in daft, the news agency effectively accepted that these matters remained under discussion.

Nour News, a website close to Iran’s top security official Ali Shamkhani, earlier on Thursday claimed Reuters was distorting talks in Vienna by suggesting Iran had made major concessions. Tehran would not scale back its nuclear program as long as the US did not lift sanctions incompatible with the JCPOA, the website said, also rejecting Reuters' claim that a prisoner swap was part of the talks.

The US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said on January 24 that a nuclear agreement with Tehran was unlikely without the release of Americans detained in Iran, but Iran and Russia have insisted that, whatever is discussed elsewhere, the Vienna talks should not be side-tracked.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported Friday that the US was putting off political decisions by setting “fake” deadlines and playing games with the media: The "Americans are trying to throw the ball into Iran's court by playing the blame game as the talks in Vienna approach the final stage.” Tasnim News Agency called the Reuters report "psychological warfare."