JCPOA Talks at Drafting Stage

Ongoing negotiations over the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal have made good progress and the parties involved are expected to start drafting joint documents, according to a senior Iranian diplomat. 
“We have reached a stage where we can list [the United States’] sanctions [that must be removed],” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a regular press briefing on Monday, ISNA reported. 
He added, however, that this does not mean that negotiations have reached the final round, as discussions are yet to be held on difficult issues. 
Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran, forcing it to eventually take reciprocal steps by surpassing the deal’s limits. 
The new US administration’s willingness to rejoin JCPOA has opened up the possibility of restoring the landmark accord, but disagreements over what steps and in which order should be taken by each side had complicated the situation. 
JCPOA’s Joint Commission initiated negotiations in Vienna, Austria, early this month to break the stalemate. A US delegation is also present in the city and holding separate talks with the remaining parties, namely France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China. 
In the meantime, two working groups of experts are devising a feasible process for the US sanctions lifting and Iran’s return to full nuclear implementation.

Specific Steps 

During the latest session on Saturday, the commission was briefed on the results of expert working groups that were tasked with conducting their activities immediately over the weekend and this week to avoid a waste of time.   
Russian’s envoy said in his latest tweet on Monday that after two weeks of deliberations, “we can note with satisfaction that the negotiations have entered the drafting stage.” 
“Practical solutions are still far away, but we have moved from general words to agreeing on specific steps towards the goal,” Mikhail Ulyanov added. 
Khatibzadeh said the smallest issues in this regard need to be negotiated, because Iran’s needs assurances that that the US will fulfill its commitments this time. 
Iran has said that it would immediately reverse its nuclear steps once the US removes all its sanctions in a verifiable manner. 
It has submitted its proposed lists of sanctions to be lifted by Washington and nuclear steps to be taken by Tehran, which are being used as the basis for follow-on negotiations.  
“If the US administration makes up its mind about moving away from [former president Donald] Trump’s failed heritage and step toward implementation of its commitments, this process will move forward more easily,” the spokesman said.