Lapid, Blinken to meet in Rome next week as Iran talks progress

The trip will be Lapid’s first as foreign minister and the first meeting between members of the new Israeli government and US President Joe Biden's cabinet.

FOREIGN MINISTER Yair Lapid arrives at the President’s Residence on Sunday, June 17, 2021 and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, May 25, 2021. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
FOREIGN MINISTER Yair Lapid arrives at the President’s Residence on Sunday, June 17, 2021 and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, May 25, 2021.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid plans to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome on Sunday.
The trip will be Lapid’s first as foreign minister and the first meeting between members of the new Israeli government and US President Joe Biden's cabinet.
The meeting will take place exactly two weeks after the new government was sworn in. Blinken and Lapid have spoken several times since then, and the two top diplomats promised to keep each other apprised of developments related to Iran.
The meeting comes soon after the sixth round of indirect talks between the US and Iran on returning to the 2015 nuclear deal came to a close on Sunday. Officials in Tehran said Washington is close to lifting oil sanctions on the Islamic Republic, while Germany and France said there are still major issues to be negotiated.
The Iranian remarks, by outgoing President Hassan Rouhani's chief of staff, echoed previous assertions by officials in Rouhani's pragmatist camp that Washington is prepared to make major concessions at the talks, under way since April in Vienna.
"An agreement has been reached to remove all insurance, oil and shipping sanctions that were imposed by [former US President Donald] Trump," Rouhani's chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
Earlier this week, Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian judiciary chief who sanctioned by the US for human rights violations in light of his involvement in thousands of executions, won the Iranian presidential election. Raisi is due to replace Rouhani in August.
Vaezi said the United States had agreed to take some senior Iranian figures off a blacklist.
"About 1,040 Trump-era sanctions will be lifted under the agreement. It was also agreed to lift some sanctions on individuals and members of the supreme leader's inner circle."
Like other Western and Iranian negotiators who have said the talks remain a long way from conclusion, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday that Tehran and the powers still had to overcome significant hurdles.
"We are making progress but there are still some nuts to crack," Maas told a joint news conference with Blinken. Maas said a deal was possible even after the election of Raisi, an implacable critic of the West.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday there was still “a fair distance to travel”, including on sanctions and on the nuclear commitments that Iran has to make to salvage the tattered deal.
Some Iranian officials have suggested Tehran may prefer an agreement before Raisi takes office to give the new president a clean slate and avoid blame if problems subsequently arise.
The Biden administration aims to restore the deal, but the sides disagree on which steps need to be taken and when to defuse mutual suspicions and ensure full compliance.
Iran agreed in 2015 to curbs on its uranium enrichment program, a possible pathway to nuclear weapons, in return for the lifting of international sanctions. The limitations on the nuclear program will expire in 2030 under the original agreement.
Trump abandoned the agreement three years later, calling it flawed to Iran's advantage, and reimposed harsh sanctions that hammered Iran's economy.
Tehran responded by violating enrichment limits and starting to develop uranium metal.