UK Security Advisor Believes Deal with Iran Was In Reach

Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, was surprised by the Iranian offer and believed that war could have been averted, reports the Guardian.

The UK Guardian just reported that,

Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, attended the final talks between the US and Iran and judged that the offer made by Tehran on its nuclear programme was significant enough to prevent a rush to war, the Guardian can reveal.

Powell thought progress had been made in Geneva in late February and that the deal proposed by Iran was “surprising”, according to sources.

Two days after the talks ended, and after a date had been agreed for a further round of technical talks in Vienna, the US and Israel launched the attack on Iran. …

“The UK team were surprised by what the Iranians put on the table,” the former official added.

“It was not a complete deal, but it was progress and was unlikely to be the Iranians’ final offer. The British team expected the next round of negotiations to go ahead on the basis of the progress in Geneva.”

That next round of talks was due to take place in Vienna on Monday 2 March, but never happened. The US and Israel had launched their all-out attack two days earlier. ….

One diplomat with knowledge of the talks said: “We regarded Witkoff and Kushner as Israeli assets that dragged a president into a war he wants to get out of.”

The Guardian’s report that Powell was in the room during the talks was cited in parliament on Tuesday by Liz Saville Roberts, an MP for the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party, during an update by Britain’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper.

“It appears diplomatic options were still viable and there was no evidence of an imminent missile threat to Europe or of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Saville Roberts told Cooper.

As we know, the talks in Vienna, scheduled for March 2, didn’t happen because Israel and the United States started bombing Iran the morning after the talks in Geneva on February 26.

The Guardian report seems to corroborate what Joe Kent wrote in his resignation letter today.