Vienna Talks to Conclude With Brief Session for Formal Decision on JCPOA Revival

Participants in the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal will most likely hold a very short meeting to make a formal decision “if and when” the United States and Iran settle their final differences “at a distance”, said Russia’s top negotiator, who hoped this would happen soon.  
Mikhail Ulyanov made the remarks on Twitter, in response to a reporter who had expressed regret about the dismantling of the media tent outside the Vienna hotel, where negotiations take place, while the talks are not concluded.  
“The Media tent isn’t vital at this stage,” he said. 
Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington have been underway in the Austrian capital since last April to work out how both sides can resume compliance with the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which lifted sanctions on the Islamic Republic in return for curbs on its nuclear program. 
The US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions that prompted Tehran to roll back on its nuclear commitments. 
Major progress has been made over a year of discussion, but the conclusion of talks is now hanging on the resolution of a few remaining issues. 
The negotiations have been adjourned for a month with no meetings scheduled yet, but Europeans have continued to shuttle between Tehran and Washington in search for accommodation from both sides.   
The European Union coordinator of the talks, Enrique Mora, traveled to both Tehran and Washington late last month to discuss the final obstacles.
He met with Iran’s top negotiator Ali Baqeri Kani in Tehran to work on “closing the remaining gaps”. 
“We must conclude this negotiation. Much is at stake,” he tweeted. 
In his latest remarks, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that “we are close to an agreement” in Vienna talks. 
“We have communicated our proposals about the remaining issues to the American side through the EU top negotiator and the ball is now in the US court,” he said in a recent phone conversation with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.  
The UN chief underlined the importance of Vienna talks, hoping that both sides can come to an agreement at the earliest date.  

Key Sticking Point

Last Sunday, however, US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said he was not confident that a nuclear deal between world powers and Tehran was imminent.
“I can’t be confident it is imminent… A few months ago we thought we were pretty close as well,” Malley said at the Doha Forum international conference.
“In any negotiations, when there’s issues that remain open for so long, it tells you something about how hard it is to bridge the gap.”
The issue of a “terror” designation on Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps is reportedly one key sticking point between Tehran and Washington.
Tehran demands the delisting of the IRGC, but the US has so far refused to do so. 
Speaking at the Doha Forum, Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said designating the elite IRGC as a “terrorist” group was unacceptable. 
“The IRGC is a national army, and a national army cannot be listed as a terrorist group and certainly, this is not acceptable. That is very important to Iranians.”
He said the military body “certainly must be removed” from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list while Malley said the IRGC “will remain sanctioned under US law and our policies, and our perceptions” of it “will not change.”