As the deadline to an agreement about Iran’s nuclear program approaches, Iran claims the failed negotiations and wide gaps between the two sides is the fault of “pressure from the Zionists.” 

Iranian Army Chief of Staff, Hassan Firuzabadi said Saturday night, that even before talks began in Geneva, Switzerland, an agreement was thwarted – by Israel and United States Republicans. 

The senior official blamed midterm US elections, in which Republicans won a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, explaining that the Jewish lobby has a greater influence on the Republican Party, than the Democratic Party. 

Instead, Firuzabadi looked backward to proclaim that in the previous round of talks, held in Oman, they were “very close to an agreement, but what the Americans actually said were the words of the Zionists.”

Firuzabadi continued by saying that “all the talks which lasted for a long year and cost money were complicated because of the political event that occurred in the United States.”

According to him, it is doubtful the United States will do right by Iran, when “the Zionist pay money to bring the Republicans to power, and then they refuse to understand what the Republic of Iran says.” 

Despite the blame game, the main reason for the negotiations failure remains tied to two key issues: enrichment – a process that renders uranium suitable for energy uses but also, at high purities, for a weapon; and the pace of the lifting of sanctions.

Iran wants to massively ramp up the number of enrichment centrifuges – in order, it claims, to make fuel for a fleet of future reactors – while the West wants them dramatically reduced from 19,000 to 4,500. The six powers fear Iran being able to produce a nuclear bomb within a short period of time. 

Yet another issue is the dispute about the time length of a diplomatic deal. While the six powers require that an agreement between the two parties will last 20 years, Iran insists on a much shorted time scheme.