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Parties to Iran nuclear deal plan talks in Vienna next week
Iran and the remaining world powers in the 2015 nuclear deal will hold in-person talks in Vienna next week to discuss possible sanctions-lifting measures among other issues, in what appeared to be a step forward from stalled diplomacy.
Iran and the remaining world powers in the 2015 nuclear deal will hold in-person talks in Vienna next week to discuss possible sanctions-lifting measures among other issues, in what appeared to be a step forward from stalled diplomacy.
The European Union, which chaired a video conference on Friday with the deal participants including Iran, Russia, China, Germany, France and the UK, said the next round of talks aims “to clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures.” The bloc will intensify “separate contacts” between the deal’s participants and the United States, it added.
The US has been trying to use Europe as an intermediary with Iran after Tehran rebuffed talks with the Biden administration on reviving the accord that former President Donald Trump abandoned. After Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement, Iran breached some of the limits that it placed on its nuclear program.
“The members considered the prospect of the United States’ full return to the JCPOA and emphasized their readiness to investigate the issue with a positive outlook and with collective effort,” Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement after Friday’s meeting, using the abbreviation for the deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said a follow-up meeting would take place in Vienna on Tuesday. His deputy, Abbas Araghchi, said the Iranian delegation would not negotiate with their US counterparts “at any level” during Tuesday’s talks, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
‘The right track’
China on Friday called for the US to lift all “illegal” sanctions on Iran, saying the country’s nuclear issue was at a “critical stage.” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying blamed Washington’s unilateral exit from the Iran deal as the “root cause” of the problem, while saying China welcomes the return of the US.
Russia’s envoy to the UN’s atomic agency, Mikhail Ulyanov, wrote in a tweet: “The impression is that we are on the right track but the way ahead will not be easy.”
“There’s no time to lose,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement. “A fully respected agreement would be an advantage for the security of the region, and the best basis for talks about other important aspects of regional stability.”
US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Thursday that Washington welcomed the European effort as a positive step. He said the US was ready to return to compliance with the 2015 agreement “consistent with” Iran doing the same and has been exploring “the best way to achieve this, including through a series of mutual, initial steps.”
“We have been looking at options for doing so, including with indirect conversations through our mutual European partners,” Price said.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this month that his nation was in “no hurry” to revive the nuclear deal and said US policy was doomed to fail unless sanctions against the Islamic Republic were first removed.
