US Backs Mora’s Efforts to Conclude Vienna Talks

The United States supports efforts by the European Union coordinator of talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Enrique Mora, to bring the stalled negotiations to a successful conclusion, said a senior American diplomat. 
“Our hope is that we can conclude this negotiation quickly,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a press briefing on Monday. 
Talks in the Austrian capital Vienna aim to work out how the US and Iran can resume compliance with the nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which restricted Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. 
The JCPOA was jeopardized when Washington pulled out in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran which reacted by scaling back its commitments. 
The Vienna talks have been halted for more than a month over a few remaining differences, but the EU, as intermediary, has been delivering messages during this time. 
In an attempt to find a “middle way”, Mora was expected to arrive in Tehran on Tuesday and will meet with Iran’s top negotiator Ali Baqeri Kani. 
Price said Washington is in close touch with Mora, but he would not prejudge or attempt to discern what the EU diplomat might hear from his Iranian counterparts. 
“Of course, we’ll learn more after his trip.”
Iran says the conclusion of talks depends on the US political decisions and has called on Washington to adopt a realistic approach. 
Price said, on the other hand, that this negotiation can conclude quickly “if the Iranians are willing to proceed in good faith to allow us to continue to build on and to move forward with the significant progress that had been made over months and months of oftentimes painstaking diplomacy and negotiations.”
“But we’ll have to see how those conversations go,” he said. 

G7 Support

Despite the serious challenges, neither side seems to be willing to announce the failure of talks. 
The US says it would pursue a mutual return to JCPOA as long as it is in its national security interest, and would reassess once they get to a point where the nonproliferation benefits of the JCPOA have been obviated by the advancements in Iran’s nuclear program.
“We’re already at the point where we’re preparing equally for either scenario—a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA or an alternative—and we’re discussing both with our allies and partners,” Price said. 
Iran also says it would not tie its economy to the result of Vienna talks and pursues parallel plans to neutralize the sanctions and develop a sanctions-resistant economy. 
Meanwhile, the G7, the group of seven advanced economies, renewed its support for the restoration and full implementation of the JCPOA in a statement of its non-proliferation directors group on Monday. 
“A diplomatic solution remains the best way to restrict Iran’s nuclear program,” it said. 
Western countries have long sought to curb Iran’s nuclear program over claimed concerns about its potential weaponization, although Tehran strongly denies such ambitions, maintaining that its activities are exclusively for civilian purposes. 
The G7 also commended the participants of the Vienna talks as well as the EU coordinator for their tireless efforts.
“We urge Iran to seize the offer currently on the table to bring negotiations to a successful conclusion and to refrain from further escalation of its nuclear activities,” it read. 
Iran says its nuclear measures can be reversed only when its full cycle of economic benefit from the JCPOA is guaranteed. 
This entails the removal of all components of the “maximum pressure campaign” that former US president Donald Trump unleashed against Tehran, according to Iranian officials.