JERUSALEM/VIENNA: A new Iran nuclear agreement “cannot be postponed any longer”, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday during his first visit to Israel, which staunchly opposes efforts to forge a deal with Tehran.

Policy differences on Iran, long Israel’s arch foe, surfaced at a Jerusalem joint press conference, with Scholz saying Germany “would like to see an agreement reached in Vienna”.

The latest round of negotiations to salvage Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal started in late November in the Austrian capital and the talks are expected to reach a crunch point in the coming days.

“Now is the time to make a decision,” Scholz said. “This must not be postponed any longer and cannot be postponed any longer. Now is the time to finally say yes to something that represents a good and reasonable solution.”

The original 2015 agreement unravelled when former US president Donald Trump withdrew from it, with Israeli encouragement.

IAEA adamant it won’t abandon probe; Tehran suffers another launch failure

The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) secured sanctions relief for Iran in return for strict curbs on its nuclear programme to prevent it acquiring an atomic weapon, a goal Iran has always denied pursuing.

However, Israeli PM Naftali Bennett said he was “deeply troubled” by the outlines of a new deal taking shape, fearing it does too little to stop Iran from getting the nuclear bomb, while granting it sanctions relief.

Bennett stressed on Wednesday that Israel is “following the talks in Vienna with concern” and warned that “Israel will know how to defend itself and ensure its security and future”.

IAEA will ‘never abandon’ probe

Separately, on Wednesday, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said it would “never abandon” its attempts to get Iran clarify the previous presence of nuclear material at several undeclared sites there.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday that unless this issue is closed, “we can’t think of the possibility of an agreement about the return of the US” to the Iran nuclear deal.

However, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi insisted that it would “never abandon a process because of a political reason”.

When asked by reporters what it would take for him to close the issue of the sites, Grossi replied simply that “Iran to cooperate with me” in the form of a “full process to clarify” outstanding questions. He didn’t rule out a possible visit to Tehran soon in order to discuss the issue.

Another failed space launch

According to the Associated Press, Iran likely suffered another failed launch of a satellite-carrying rocket in recent days.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies show scorch marks at a launch pad at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran’s rural Semnan province on Sunday. A rocket stand on the pad appears scorched and damaged, with vehicles surrounding it. An object, possibly part of the gantry, sits near it.

Successful launches typically don’t damage rocket gantries because they are lowered prior to takeoff. Iran also usually immediately trumpets launches that reach space on its state-run television channels, and it has a history of not acknowledging failed attempts.

The rocket involved appears to have been Iran’s Zuljanah satellite launch vehicle, said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who first noticed the attempted launch with colleagues. It remains unclear what could have caused the blast.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2022