JCPOA Meeting to Hold Technical Talks About Sanctions Removal

Iran will hold technical discussions about the lifting of American sanctions with the remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal during the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting on Tuesday, a top Iranian diplomat said. 
“Our discussions with the P4+1 in Vienna [Austria] will be completely technical about the sanctions that need to be lifted and the measures Iran need to take as well as the order [of this process] that Americans must first take and be verified,” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday, IRNA reported. 
Tough sanctions were reimposed on Tehran by the United States that withdrew unilaterally from the nuclear deal in 2018. Iran took reciprocal steps by reducing its compliance with the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
The new US administration is now willing to rejoin the agreement, but the situation has reached a deadlock with Washington calling on Iran to resume full compliance first and Iran demanding a complete removal of sanctions before it reverses its remedial steps. 
The issue was discussed on Friday during a virtual meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission where the participants agreed to continue the talks in person the following week in Vienna. 
Deputy ministers and political directors from France, Germany, Britain, China, Russia (P4+1) and Iran are set to attend the meeting on Tuesday. 
Araqchi stressed that what Iran will be pursuing in the Joint Commission meeting is based on the country’s definite position repeatedly declared by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and other authorities. 

Negotiation With P4+1

US representatives are also slated to be in the city to engage in what they call indirect negotiations with Iran. 
"We have agreed to participate in talks with our European, Russian and Chinese partners to identify the issues involved in a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA with Iran," US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
He added that the primary issues to be discussed in the meeting "are the nuclear steps that Iran would need to take in order to return to compliance with the terms of the JCPOA, and the sanctions relief steps that the United States would need to take in order to return to compliance as well".
Araqchi, who will be heading Iran’s delegation in the meeting, stressed that there will be no direct or indirect talks with the US, although other signatories are free to have their own separate talks with Americans. 
“We will negotiate with the P4+1 countries and announce to them our demand and condition for the return to JCPOA,” he said. 
The demand, according to Araqchi, is that the US must first fulfill all its JCPOA commitments and remove all sanctions, in which case Iran will resume full compliance after verifying the effectiveness of US measures.  
“If the P4+1 countries can convince Americans in this regard through any method that they know, we will naturally meet [our pledges],” he said. 
The diplomat also rejected the possibility of a step-by-step approach, saying there is only one step and that involves the lifting of all sanctions that were reimposed, introduced or relabeled after the US withdrawal from JCPOA. 
“This ultimate step that they should take and the steps we should take need to be defined in details and this will be done in our technical discussions with P4+1 countries,” he said.