EU Will Remain Engaged to Bring Vienna Talks to a Successful End

The European Union keeps being engaged to bring talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal to a successful end, said a senior EU diplomat, as negotiations have been stalled for months despite being very close to a final agreement. 
“EU High Representative Josep Borrell … is trying his best to make sure that we go back to the full compliance and full delivery by this very important nuclear agreement,” lead EU spokesman for foreign affairs told a news conference in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday, according to KUNA. 
The nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was signed between Iran and the six world powers and offered sanctions relief to Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear program. 
However, it has been unravelling since the United States pulled out in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions that prompted Tehran to react by scaling down its nuclear commitments. 
The new US government vowed to rejoin the JCPOA, making way for negotiations in Vienna, Austria, in April 2021 to work out how both side can resume compliance. 
The talks have been paused since March over a few final differences, with the EU representatives shuttling between the sides two to find a way out of the impasse. 
Iran demands the removal of all components of the US so-called maximum pressure campaign, including all sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities as well as the terror designation of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, before returning to the limits of the deal. 
The US, however, joined European partners recently to push for a resolution against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors and later introduced new sanctions when Tehran stepped up its countermeasures. 
Iran reacted to the IAEA resolution—which it said was passed based on the unfair and unbalanced report of the director general—by advancing its nuclear activity and reducing its cooperation with the IAEA.
The measures included the installment of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at the enrichment plant in Natanz and removing 27 IAEA surveillance cameras which operated beyond the safeguards obligations. 
“When it comes to Iranian activities, we are concerned. There is ongoing concern about Iranian non-compliance and this is exactly the reason why we need to go back to the full delivery of the JCPOA,” Stano said. 
Negotiators are very close to the point where a final agreement can be reached, according to the EU diplomat, but “we are not there yet,” he said. 
“There is still time to make the last-ditch effort but unless everything is agreed, then of course we will not see the removal of our concerns,” he added. 
Stano stressed that the deal would be full-functioning only when all obligations are met completely by all parties. 
“Only when commitments are being fulfilled 100%, when the [Iranian nuclear] program can be controlled 100%, when the participants can deliver their obligations stemming from the JCPOA, only then we can have a functioning and full delivering JCPOA,” he said.