Talks on Restoring Iran Deal May Be Completed Early June

The talks in Vienna on restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for the Iranian nuclear program in the current situation may be completed in the first days of June, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, told the radio station Ekho Moskvy in a recent interview.
“As a matter of fact, guessing is a rather unrewarding business. Should you ask me for my personal opinion, I can say that the first days of June are a realistic deadline. At least, it looks like this to me now. But when such complex work and such complex affairs are at stake, it is impossible to make forecasts with certainty. I am talking about the way our partners and myself feel at the moment,” he said, when asked about the current deadline for the talks.
Ulyanov said that the negotiations were moving in the right direction.
“We have long crossed the equator. I have a feeling that the final stage may begin next week. I hope it will be so,” he added.
The participants in negotiations that have continued in Vienna since the beginning of April have noted steady progress in their work. The three groups of experts are working on the wording of a future agreement with the aim of resuming compliance with the JCPOA: the lifting of Washington’s sanctions from Tehran and eventual US return to the deal and Iran’s compliance with its nuclear liabilities.
The JCPOA signatories are also holding separate consultations with the United States, which pulled out of the agreement in 2018, but now has declared the intention to get back. No direct talks between US emissaries and Iranian representatives are being held in Vienna.