An informed source said areas of difference in negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have narrowed and delegations are discussing the sequence and methods of implementing a possible agreement.
“On sanctions lifting and nuclear issues, many brackets have been erased and we are now working on the third appendix on sequencing and implementation,” the source was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Indirect negotiations have been underway in Vienna, Austria, since April 2021 between Iran and the United States to work out how both countries can return to compliance with the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which revoked international sanctions on Tehran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Iran began to exceed those nuclear limits in response to the US unilateral exit and reimposition of sweeping sanctions.
It now demands a complete and verifiable removal of the bans before reversing its countermeasures, besides guarantees that no future US government would abandon the deal again.
The atmosphere of Vienna talks has improved since Christmas and there is hope that an agreement can be reached within the next few weeks, according to the top EU diplomat
The Vienna talks are at their eighth round and have reached a stage where negotiators are discussing how to put the agreed terms into words and include them in a document, according to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat, however, added that there are still non-agreed issues in all three sections (nuclear steps, sanctions lifting and implementation/sequencing/verification), some of which are very difficult.
“This is a complicated negotiation, meaning everything depends on everything.”
Verification of sanctions lifting, a key demand on Tehran’s part, is one of the longest and most difficult areas of negotiation, according to the source, but is completely essential for reaching an outcome.
“Negotiations are on an acceptable course and we are now discussing difficult issues,” the delegate said.
Decisive Weeks
The Vienna talks got off to a rocky start when they restarted in late November 2021, when a new Iranian government with a stricter position took over.
But “the atmosphere has improved since Christmas,” according to European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who acts as coordinator of the JCPOA.
“I was pessimistic prior to that but now I think we can reach an agreement,” he told reporters on Friday, hoping he will be able to give news of the final results within “the next few weeks”, Politico reported.
Russia also expressed cautious optimism about the progress of Vienna talks.
“They are making good progress at the moment, touch wood. We think they will come to an agreement,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
“There’s real progress. There’s real desire—primarily between Iran and the United States—to understand specific concerns and how these concerns can be considered in the general package” of documents, he added, according to AFP.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, however, sounded less optimistic as he warned that the speed of negotiations was not sufficient.
“Today I’m sounding the alert because things go way too slow to come to a conclusion, and if it continues like this there will be nothing left to negotiate,” he said.
“The choice is to return to the JCPOA agreement very quickly, or a new [nuclear] proliferation crisis with Iran,” he added.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said on Thursday that there are only “a few weeks left” to save the deal before Tehran’s advancements will become too difficult to reverse.
“We have, I think, a few weeks left to see if we can get back to mutual compliance,” he said. “We’re very, very short on time.”
He said reviving the accord would be the best result for America’s security, but they would look at other options if they cannot achieve this goal.
