Iran Tribunal Organizers Say Tehran Threatens to Partially Suspend Upcoming Nuclear Talks
By Michael Lipin, Nike Ching November 12, 2021
Human rights activists holding a tribunal in London to investigate Iran's deadly suppression of protests in 2019 say they have learned that Tehran is threatening to partially suspend upcoming nuclear talks with world powers if the tribunal continues.
A Persian-language tweet posted Friday by the tribunal organizers cited unnamed European sources as saying Iran's deputy foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, made the threat during a Thursday meeting with British officials in London.
The tweet said the European sources quoted Bagheri Kani as telling the British officials: "You want us to negotiate with you about the [2015 Iran nuclear deal], but instead of showing us goodwill, you have allowed terrorists to put us on trial here."
Bagheri Kani's reference to "terrorists" appeared to be aimed at the human rights groups staging the tribunal, which opened Wednesday and is set to conclude Sunday.
The event, known as an international people's tribunal, is organized by rights groups based in London, Paris and Oslo and is aimed at investigating alleged atrocities related to Iran's suppression of nationwide protests in November 2019. Rights activists have accused Iranian security forces of killing hundreds of protesters and wounding and detaining thousands more in the crackdown.
The event also has been named the Aban Tribunal in reference to the Persian month in which the protests happened two years ago.
VOA could not independently confirm any threat by Iran to step back from its stated intention to return to Vienna on November 29 for indirect talks with the United States about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Iran and the U.S. held several rounds of indirect talks in the Austrian capital from April to June, when Iran suspended them ahead of its presidential election that month.
The Vienna talks, in which other world powers have acted as mediators between the U.S. and Iran, are aimed at securing a mutual return to JCPOA compliance by the two longtime rivals. Under the deal, Iran promised world powers to curb nuclear activities that could be weaponized in return for international sanctions relief.
US backed out
The prior U.S. administration of President Donald Trump quit the JCPOA in 2018, saying it was not tough enough on Iran, and reimposed U.S. sanctions. Iran retaliated a year later by starting to publicly exceed JCPOA limits on its nuclear activities.
President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump in January, has said he wants to revive the JCPOA through diplomacy, calling it the best way to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear-armed, a goal Tehran denies seeking. He has offered to remove some U.S. sanctions on Iran in return for Iran resuming full compliance with JCPOA restrictions on its nuclear program.
The government of Iran's new president, Ebrahim Raisi, who took office in August, agreed this month to resume the JCPOA talks on November 29.
But Bagheri Kani told Iranian state-run network Press TV Thursday that Iran would not discuss its nuclear activities at the upcoming talks. He said the talks would focus instead on the U.S. terminating what he called its illegal sanctions against Tehran.
The Aban Tribunal's tweet cited the European sources as saying Bagheri Kani threatened to suspend "part" of the upcoming JCPOA talks. It was not immediately clear what that meant.
In its first response to the tribunal, the U.S. State Department sent a Friday statement to VOA saying it was following the event. Asked if the U.S. would consider tightening human rights-related sanctions on Iran in light of witnesses testifying at the tribunal about alleged Iranian rights abuses, a State Department spokesperson said the U.S. "cannot comment on internal sanctions deliberations."
The U.S. spokesperson accused the Iranian government of "continuing to deny Iranians their human rights, including through severe restrictions on the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of expression."
The spokesperson also said the U.S. "condemns the use of violence against peaceful protesters. We support the rights of Iranians to peacefully assemble and express themselves, without fear of violence and detention by security forces."
This article originated in VOA's Persian Service.
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