Senior diplomats from Russia, China, Germany, France, and Britain appear to be making progress in talks with Iran on how to bring the United States back into a landmark nuclear accord.
A new round of discussions on May 19 are being held in Vienna with the countries as they look to find common ground between Tehran and Washington to renew the deal after then-U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of the pact in 2018.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said there had been “concrete results” and that he had hope a resolution may come soon.
“I cannot predict how it will end up, because ultimately the results of the negotiations will be assessed again in the respective capitals and then approved or not,” he said.
“But our goal is to achieve a result in the negotiations in the next two weeks and thus create the conditions for the U.S. to return to this agreement,” he added. He did not give details of where progress had been made.
Because the United States is currently out of the deal, there is no American representation at the talks. Diplomats from the participating countries involved are shuttling between the Iranian side and a delegation from Washington elsewhere in Vienna.
Ahead of the May 19 talks, Iran’s delegate, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, acknowledged that there had been good progress, though several key issues needed further assessment.
The negotiations, which kicked off in Vienna in early April, are focused on creating a road map for Washington to lift sanctions on Iran and for Tehran to reinstate restrictions on its nuclear program that were laid out in the agreement.
Under the accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran had pledged to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of international sanctions. But President Trump withdrew the United States from the pact in May 2018, saying it needed to be renegotiated, and started reimposing sanctions on Iran.
Iran reacted by stepping up its violations of the accord by enriching uranium to a greater purity, stockpiling more than allowed, and introducing more advanced centrifuges.
Tehran also pushed the remaining parties in the deal — France, Britain, Russia, and China — for economic relief.
The pact is intended to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iranian officials have consistently denied Tehran is seeking such armaments, saying its nuclear ambitions are purely for civilian purposes.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said he wants to rejoin the deal, but that Iran needs to return to compliance.
When asked at the White House on May 7 if he thought Tehran was serious about the talks in Vienna, Biden said: “Yes, but how serious, and what they are prepared to do is a different story. But we’re still talking.”
Source » rferl