American newspaper uncovers US-Iran indirect talks on Syria, detainees
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The US is launching indirect bilateral talks with Iran that it hopes will curtail Tehran’s nuclear program short of weapons development, end proxy attacks on US forces in Syria, and release three American prisoners in exchange for “limited access” to some of Iran’s billions of dollars frozen overseas, The Washington Post said in a report on Tuesday.
The US, European, and Middle Eastern officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, believe that the talks’ objective is to discuss “a sensitive issue.”
The report added that with the 2015 nuclear agreement between the US and Iran is falling short to be revived, these talks are meant to reduce simmering tensions between the two countries.
The underway discussions, according to the report, “are an attempt to draw clear red lines and reverse what has been a steady escalation in Iranian aggression and tensions, exacerbated by Tehran’s crackdown on protests and weapons shipments to Russia for use in Ukraine.”
As for the deepening military ties between Russia and Iran, the White House expressed earlier alarm saying that Iran seeks “billions” worth of Russian aircraft and weapons in exchange for drones.
Earlier in June, Israeli media reported that a new US-Iran agreement was imminent, the issue that drew “outspoken criticism” by the Israeli government and some US lawmakers, who rejected any characterization of a pending “deal.”
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) said on June 15 in a letter to the US President Joe Biden that he was “deeply disturbed” that the administration was re-engaging with Tehran.
The talks kicked off weeks after a drone attack on March 23 on US forces in Syria that killed an American contractor.
However, the US had responded with an airstrike on an Iranian facility in Syria that killed a number of Syrian proxy militants.
General Michael Erik Kurilla, Central Command (CENTCOM) commander, said, “We responded to an attack on our forces that killed an American contractor and wounded our troops and another American contractor by striking facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
US negotiators have warned that “further attacks in Syria and continued high-level uranium enrichment that has come dangerously close to weapons-grade levels will elicit a response — including military action — that neither side wants,” according to the Washington Post.
Iranian officials and Brett McGurk, the top Middle East official on the National Security Council, since then, have met twice with the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman serving as “the venue and go-between and nearby Qatar also playing a role.”
The report stressed that such kind of talks are part of the US’ administration efforts to “use quiet, high-level diplomacy to address problems in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, where China and Russia have expanded their presence as U.S. influence and interest have been perceived to be waning.”
Those efforts also include increased outreach to Saudi Arabia to “nudge it toward relations with Israel and promote a settlement of the war in Yemen”.
A senior European diplomat long involved in talks with Iran said that the US European partners “are aware that if the Iranian nuclear program continues at full speed the crisis is unavoidable.”
Last week, representatives from Britain, France and Germany, which were signatories to the original nuclear agreement along with Russia and China, met in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.
US officials insist nothing have been offered to Iran in exchange for progress on the nuclear and Syria issues beyond refraining from retaliation and the prospect of more substantive diplomatic discussions.
One source familiar with the talks said that they are “meant to be de-escalatory.”
As for the detainees issue, Iranian-American business executives Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, who are imprisoned on what the US claimed to be “bogus espionage charges, are technically separate and conducted through Swiss officials”.
“Those things,” Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said in an interview on Wednesday with Al-Monitor, Washington-based website, made clear, referred to a potential release of detainees tied to the “unfreezing of a portion of Iranian funds that have been held overseas for years under US sanctions.”
He spoke just a day after Iranian media cited Ehsan Khandouzi, Iranian Finance Minister, as saying that at least some money will be released “in the coming weeks,” the issue that will bring “fraught in political terms.”
The Washington Post added that the release of billions of frozen Iranian dollars concurrent with the freeing of US hostages and implementation of the JCPOA in January 2016 “brought harsh criticism for the Obama administration, which Republicans charged had handed over ‘pallets of cash’ that Iran would use to fund terrorists.”
So far, no official details have been released about the negotiations between the two countries as they have become highly almost certain, especially after reports that previously spoke about the negotiations in Oman and the Iranian confession of that.