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Differences Splinter U.S. Team Negotiating with Iran on Nuclear Deal
(Wall Street Journal) Laurence Norman - Differences have emerged in the U.S. negotiating team over how tough to be with Tehran and when to walk away, according to people familiar with the negotiations. U.S. officials confirmed that Richard Nephew, the deputy special envoy for Iran, has left the team. Nephew, an architect of previous economic sanctions on Iran, had advocated a tougher posture in the current negotiations. Two other members of the team, which is led by State Department veteran Robert Malley, have stepped back from the talks because they also wanted a harder negotiating stance. Among the issues that have divided the team are how firmly to enforce existing sanctions and whether to cut off negotiations as Iran drags them out while its nuclear program advances. Some in the team urged leaving the talks in December after a new Iranian negotiating team returned to Vienna and reversed most of the concessions the previous government made in the spring 2021.