Iran, EU to Examine Obstacles to JCPOA Revival in Brussels Talks

Representatives from Iran and the European Union are set to discuss impediments to the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal during their meeting in Brussels, Belgium. 
“The challenges and obstacles that prevented six rounds of negotiations in Vienna from reaching an outcome will be discussed in the [Brussels] talks,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a regular press briefing on Monday, ISNA reported. 
Negotiations in the Austrian capital started in April to work out how the United States and Iran can resume compliance with the nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
Iran scaled back on its commitments after the US pulled out in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions that the remaining parties failed to counter. 
The Vienna talks were halted after six rounds in June, following a change of government in Iran. 
The EU envoy who coordinates the talks visited Iran last week to meet Iran’s potential negotiator Ali Baqeri, after the new administration in Tehran showed signs of readiness to return to the table. 
“The Thursday discussions were good and constructive and Iran communicated the pointes it needed to tell the coordinator,” Khatibzadeh said. 
Both sides agreed to carry on with their discussions in Brussels in the coming days. 

More Optimistic 

EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday that he hoped EU and Iranian diplomats would meet soon to discuss a potential return to nuclear talks.
Some Iranian media have said discussions could take place on Thursday, but Borrell declined to confirm the reports as he arrived for an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg.
“No confirmation yet, but things are getting better and I am hopeful we will have preparatory meetings in Brussels in the days to come,” he said, according to Reuters. 
He said he is “more optimistic today than yesterday” about the resumption of Vienna talks. 
Khatibzadeh said what matters for Iran is to uphold the interests of the Iranian nation, in which case it “would not waste a single second and hour to carry out result-oriented talks.” 
“Our negotiations with Mr. Mora was along the same line,” he said. 
The new Iranian administration has confirmed that would definitely return to the talks after evaluating the past rounds, but insists that it must have tangible results for the Iranian nation.
The Iranian foreign minister told the media in September that the new negotiating team would go to Vienna “very soon”, but refused to set a date. 
Khatibzadeh said Iran is now reviewing the challenges created over the past six rounds of negotiations. 
“The main objective is to make sure of the lifting of all sanctions and receiving a guarantee in this regard, so that Washington cannot ridicule the world once again and we can achieve our goal of engaging in productive talks,” he said.
Iran demands a complete and verified removal of US sanctions before it reversed its nuclear steps, but Washington is reportedly refusing to lift all its bans to win more concessions out of Iran.