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The Aspen Security Forum wrapped up on Friday in Colorado, featuring a slate of high-profile current and former administration officials.
Victoria Nuland, the Biden administration’s undersecretary of state for political affairs, addressed the status of Iran talks in Vienna, which have been stalled for months as Iranian and U.S. officials have been on opposing sides of a debate over removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Foreign Terror Organization designation.
“The deal is sitting there on the table for the taking, if the Iranians want it,” Nuland told CNN’s Jim Sciutto, who moderated Friday’s session. “There’s only one decision-maker in Iran. It would get their oil back on the market. It would get them some relief from some of the sanctions that have come on. But so far, they haven’t chosen to go in that route… Frankly, the Iranian people pay the price as their prices go up and inflation goes up and if he doesn’t take the deal, we’re gonna have to increase the pressure of course.”
Nuland was more optimistic about the odds of reaching a deal than MI6 chief Richard Moore, who the day prior said he didn’t believe that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted to reach an agreement. “It’s interesting that they haven’t thrown over the table yet,” Nuland said. “They haven’t walked away when they could have done that over these many months where the deal’s been ready and sitting there. So, you know, let’s see what happens.”
The comments were made hours after International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi warned that Iran’s nuclear program is “galloping ahead.”
Last week, we reported on newly proposed bipartisan legislation that would require the White House to submit to Congress regular, detailed reports on the state of Iran’s nuclear program. The Iran Nuclear Weapons Capability Act of 2022 is cosponsored by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Shortly after the bill’s introduction, Iran’s Foreign Ministry warned against its passage, saying that such moves could further endanger the stalled nuclear talks in Vienna.
Iran will be a hot topic on the Hill this week. House Foreign Affairs Committee members will receive a classified briefing on Thursday on the status of the stalled negotiations.
Heard in aspen
Rice: Israel’s booming tech sector key to warming relations in region

Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice
Relations between Israel and a number of Gulf nations have improved in part because of regional interest in Israel’s technology sector, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
What she said: “Think about Israel and the Gulf states and what is developing there,” Rice said during a panel at the Aspen Security Forum alongside former National Security Advisors Tom Donilan and Stephen Hadley. “Think about the fact that you could actually be at a place where the Arabs end the state of war against Israel — really end it. And why? Not because they’ve learned to love the Jewish democratic State of Israel, but because the smarter of them have realized that in order to modernize their own economies and not be completely dependent on oil, that they’re going to have to deal with the 800-pound gorilla on technology in the region, and that’s Israel.”
Regional dynamics: Rice praised President Joe Biden’s recent trip to Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia, calling the trip “a very good thing,” while noting she disagreed with Biden’s stance toward Riyadh during the primary, during which time he pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state, a pronouncement made after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. “I think the problem was the first position, because who isn’t going to go to Saudi Arabia?” Rice said. “Name an American president who is not going to go to Saudi Arabia at some point. So don’t say that you’re not going to go to Saudi Arabia. You’re going to go to Saudi Arabia, because of economic reasons and because of stability in the Middle East.