Onus on US to Clear Way for Finalizing Nuclear Deal

A good and reliable agreement on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal is within reach if the United States makes its political decisions and adheres to its commitments, Iran’s top diplomat said. 
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a tweet, following discussions with the European Union coordinator of negotiations, Enrique Mora, in Tehran this week. 
“Contacts continue,” he said. 
The nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, has been unravelling since the US pulled out in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran, which later responded by scaling down its commitments. 
Talks began in the Austrian capital Vienna in April 2021 to work out how both sides can resume compliance. 
The negotiations made good progress, but have stalled for nearly two months now over a few remaining differences. 
The EU diplomat traveled to Tehran to meet Iran’s top negotiator Ali Baqeri Kani at the suggestion of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was seeking to find a “middle way” to end the current impasse in negotiations. 
“My contacts w/@JosepBorrellF, Mr. Mora’s visit & his talks w/ Mr. Baqeri were another opportunity to focus on initiatives to resolve the remaining issues,” Amir-Abdollahian tweeted. 
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani also said that the negotiations have reached a point that obstacles can only be removed by the “guilty party’s” adherence to Iran’s “rational and principled solutions.”
He said on Twitter that the US through its unfaithfulness and Europe through its inaction ruined the opportunity to benefit from Iran’s proven goodwill. 
“If they have the will, we are ready & an agreement is available,” he said.

Talks Unblocked 

Borrell, who had described the recent diplomatic push as “the last bullet”, said he believed there had been enough progress during consultations between his envoy and Iranian officials in Tehran to relaunch nuclear negotiations after two months of deadlock.
“It has gone better than expected—the negotiations were stalled, and now they have been reopened,” Borrell said, adding that Iran’s response had been “positive enough”.
He noted, however, that these things cannot be resolved overnight.
“Let’s say the negotiations were blocked and they have been de-blocked,” with the prospect of “reaching a final agreement.”
There are still difficult obstacles on the way for an agreement, but at least Iran and the US remained engaged, he told reporters. 
“So there is still a way to overcome these problems. And this is what we will be working on.”
A second EU official said no date was set for resuming indirect talks in Vienna.
US officials said on Friday that they were still waiting for a more detailed debriefing from Mora and his team on their discussions in Iran, but were signaling in the meantime that they were not overly optimistic about a major breakthrough.
“We look forward to a more detailed conversation with the deputy secretary general after his visit,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. 
“At this point … a deal remains far from certain,” he said. “It is up to Iran to decide whether it insists on extraneous conditions and whether it wants to conclude a deal quickly. We and our partners are ready. We have been for some time, but now it’s really up to Iran.”
A major sticking point was Iran’s demand for the removal of its Islamic Revolution Guards Corps from the list of terrorist organizations, which the US refuses to do, arguing that it is outside the purview of the JCPOA. 
Iran maintains that the designation was part of the US unlawful maximum pressure campaign against Tehran, all of whose components must be revoked before Iran returns to full compliance with the deal. 
“The negotiations had been stalled for two months due to this disagreement about what to do the [IRGC],” Borrell said. 
Russia’s envoy to the UN in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter that under different circumstances, Russia probably could have provided its good offices to the two sides to finalize an agreement on JCPOA, “But not now”. 
He was referring to the breach that has opened up between the western parties and Russia over Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine.