Qatar hopes to build on a US-Iranian detainee settlement, in order to reach an agreement on a more intractable problem between the two adamantly opposed parties.
In order to reach an agreement on a more intractable problem between the two adamantly opposed parties—the disagreement over Iran’s nuclear program—Qatar hopes to build on a US-Iranian detainee settlement that it successfully brokered after months of sensitive diplomatic negotiations.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine may be the main topic of discussion at the UN General Assembly, but Iran’s nuclear ambitions are a concern for the West and a cloud over the Middle East. Additionally, as the conflict rages on, Tehran has progressively increased its uranium enrichment and gotten closer to Moscow by giving drones to the Russian military.
Five years after former President Donald Trump tore up an agreement that had lowered sanctions in exchange for Tehran reducing nuclear activities; a nuclear deal with Iran remains a remote possibility.
Those chances are even worse if the US elects a new president in 2024. Republican criticism of US President Joe Biden for unfreezing $6 billion of Iranian assets as part of the detainee deal is already in place.
But as reported by three regional sources familiar with the discussions Doha has had independently with both sides, Qatar, a tiny but incredibly wealthy Gulf Arab state with big diplomatic ambitions, is pressuring both sides to hold additional negotiations and come to “understandings.”
In exchange for some waivers from US sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the agreements would aim to slow Tehran’s uranium enrichment while increasing international monitoring, limit the activities of Iran’s proxy militias in the region, and stop Iran’s drone exports, according to the three sources.
Source: ciobulletin.com