Iran’s Supreme Leader address senior officials in Tehran, April 12, 2022

UPDATE 0950 GMT:

The Supreme Leader’s office has withdrawn the statement that nuclear talks are “going well”.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s staff issued a tweet replacing the phrase with “diplomacy moving in the right direction”.

The office deleted its original English-language tweet from Thursday and replaced it with the new phrasing.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In a cautious approach over the Vienna nuclear talks, Iran’s Supreme Leader has said the discussions are “going well” but has warned Iranians not to rely upon their completion.

Ayatollah Khamenei spoke on Tuesday about the effort to renew the 2015 deal with the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia), including American re-entry, lifting of Washington’s sanctions on Tehran, and Iran’s return to compliance with the terms, including limits on enrichment of uranium.

He told a gathering of senior officials, “Absolutely do not wait for nuclear negotiations in planning for the country and move forward. Do not let your work be disrupted whether the negotiations reach positive or semi-positive or negative results.”

Khamenei’s line reflects the tension within Iran’s leadership over the final stages of the talks. For weeks, Foreign Secretary Hossein Amir Abdollahian and the Iranian lead negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri Kani, have said the deal is within reach.

But others such as the Secretary of the National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, have taken a hard line. The discussions were almost derailed in March by Russia’s ultimatum for a lifting of US sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine — a demand quickly withdrawn after Iranian criticism of Moscow — and are now reportedly held up over the US designation of the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization.

See also Iran — For Nuclear Deal, US Must Remove Revolutionary Guards From Terrorist List

Khamenei repeated his insistence that Iran can withstand sanctions and economic difficulties if the nuclear deal is not renewed. “The United States broke its promises and now they have reached a dead end while Iran is not in such a situation,” he maintained as he said Iranian negotiators will continue “resisting America’s excessive demands”.

On Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, “We really don’t know if we’ll get a deal or not, because the United States hasn’t shown the necessary will to reach an agreement. “What remains are the decisions of Washington.”

He claimed US sanctions were still a sticking point: “All components of maximum pressure must be removed. Unfortunately, the United States is trying to maintain some of the elements of maximum pressure.”