US says waiting for IAEA to verify Iran nuke compliance

There is something viscerally humiliating to many Americans about seeing those USA sailors in Iranian captivity.

The two small boats, used largely on coastal waters and on rivers, had been en route from Kuwait to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf when they disappeared from the Navy’s scopes.

BRUSSELS-The European Union has rolled over until January 28 the modest sanctions suspension Iran won following the 2013 interim nuclear deal.

At the beginning of August Iran declared the United States to be in material breach of the agreement based on a hypothetical statement that White House Spokesperson Josh Earnest made.

The deal is between Iran, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

On November 21, Iran launched another ballistic missile – raising Western concerns and criticism further.

In an account that aligns with that from Iranian officials, the senior State Department official said Kerry spoke with Zarif by phone at 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3:15 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Washington time. In response to the recent US move against Iranian missile capability, Rezaei called for Iran to develop missiles with a range of 5,000 km. For the most part, restrictions on US actors will remain in place. General Ramezan Sharif in late December dismissed the reports of the drills as a “psychological operation”.

“Our initial impression was that they were well treated”, Toner said, adding “there was no official US apology given to the Iranians”.

Under the deal, Iran has reduced the number of its centrifuges – fast-spinning machines that enrich uranium – and transferred the bulk of its low-enriched uranium stockpile to Russian Federation. They claimed the deactivations were being done too quickly and not according to directives from Supreme Leader Khamenei.

“The IAEA inspectors are supposed to issue their final report on Iran’s honoring of its commitments on Friday”, Araghchi was quoted by local news agencies as saying. Under the deal, Iran agreed to convert the Arak reactor so that such a “plutonium pathway” to a nuclear bomb is ruled out. He didn’t mention the captives while he was speaking, instead highlighting the Iran nuclear deal as a top legacy achievement. They were picked up by Navy aircraft and transferred ashore, eventually ending up in Qatar, while other sailors took charge of the vessels, called riverine command boats, and continued to Bahrain. “They were released in worldwide waters after they apologised”, it added.

While he and Kerry exchanged a “few words” about the Saudi-Iranian dispute, Zarif said last week, “it does not mean that we have launched negotiations with the U.S”.

The so-called snapback mechanism is created to allay fears that Iran might fail to keep its promises once sanctions are lifted. They suggest the nuclear deal has emboldened Iran to indulge in bad behavior – like detaining the American sailors, whose two small boats apparently drifted into Iranian waters Tuesday. Congressional Republicans view Obama’s approach as appeasement of an unrelentingly aggressive Iran.

“We can all imagine how a similar situation might have played out three or four years ago”, Secretary Kerry said in a speech Wednesday at the National Defense University in Washington.

“The situation was resolved and the soldiers are safely returned”.

Iran expects the United Nations nuclear watchdog to confirm tomorrow it has curtailed its nuclear programme, paving the way for the unfreezing of billions of dollars of Iranian assets and an end to bans that have crippled oil exports.