Umamah Bakharia 

European Union (EU) chief diplomat, Josep Borrell says he is loosing confidence on efforts to strike a new agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, saying the deal is “in danger” after the US and Iranian positions diverged in recent days.

Speaking to Radio Islam International on this weeks ‘Media Lens’ report analyst, Ebrahim Deen says the biggest issue that the deal faces is the US opposing.

“The big issue at play at the moment is they have been unaccounted traces of Uranium found in Iran dating back from 2003 and Iran wants any mention of this to be muted if it signs the agreement – its given up everything else including designation of the IIRTC (a terrorist organization),” he says.

This opposition comes months of indirect negations between the US and Iran in Vienna which resulted in the EU submitted a draft agreement in August, that has prompted hopes that a deal was close.

However, Tehran and Washington have since submitted responses to the agreement with opposing views on the status of a probe into Iran’s nuclear program by the UN’s atomic watchdog. They have also added concerns over Iran’s demand that the US will guarantee a continuation of economic benefits on sanctions relief if the deal falls apart at a later stage.

According to Deen, the media has been covering the deal from the Iranian side. Adding, “there’s very little context to how the deal collapsed in the first place – that it wasn’t necessarily the Iranians fault but the fact that Donald Trump pulled out of the deal.”

However, Deen says the deal could be halted because of the US influence.