Iran and the US have announced a continuation of their indirect talks to revive the international nuclear deal.
A delegation led by Iran’s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri, “will leave for Vienna in a few hours,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani on Wednesday. The US negotiator Rob Malley also announced a trip to Austria for the talks under EU mediation.
“Our expectations are limited,” Malley wrote on Twitter. But the US welcomed the EU initiative and was ready to try to reach an agreement. The EU representative for Iran, Enrique Mora, had previously announced his trip to Vienna on Twitter.
The 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran aims to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure that the country does not build nuclear weapons. However, in 2018, under its then President Donald Trump, the USA unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and imposed massive new sanctions on Iran.
In response, Iran gradually reneged on its commitments under the deal.
On July 26, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell submitted a compromise draft to the parties involved in the Vienna negotiations and called on them to accept it in order “to avoid a dangerous nuclear crisis.”
Iran then expressed “optimistic” on Monday that a revival of the nuclear agreement could be achieved.
Negotiations to revive the nuclear deal began last year but have stalled since March due to differences between Tehran and Washington. The USA and Iran are negotiating indirectly in Vienna via an EU mediator.
Indirect nuclear negotiations between the USA and Iran also took place in Qatar at the end of June, but ended after two days without a breakthrough. (AFP)
