Iran’s trying to build leverage for better nuclear deal, but it won’t work: US envoy

US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley said Tuesday that there are only “some weeks left” before there will no longer be a nuclear deal to revive.

Malley’s comments during an interview on CNN came on the heels of the end of the seventh round of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran in Vienna.

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US officials were optimistic after the first six rounds, which ended before the summer due to the election of a new government in Iran.

Since then, Iran has increased the enrichment of its uranium to unprecedented levels, and fears continue to grow over the breakout time needed for Tehran to develop a nuclear weapon.

They deny that their nuclear program is for military purposes.

“If they continue at their current pace, we have some weeks left but not much more than that, at which point, I think, the conclusion will be that there’s no deal to be revived,” Malley said on Tuesday.

He added that it was “very clear” what Iran was trying to do in stalling talks, which is to try to build leverage for a better deal.

“It won’t work,” Malley said.

“At some point in the not-so-distant future, we will have to conclude that the JCPOA is no more, and we’d have to negotiate a wholly new different deal, and of course, we’d go through a period of escalating crisis,” he told CNN.

After the latest round of talks in Vienna, Iran asked to adjourn. This drew the ire of the US and European diplomats who are mediating.

No date has been set for resuming the talks, but US officials have said publicly and privately that plans are being devised for life without a deal.

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