TEHRAN — Iran and the
International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday after talks in Tehran that they agreed on an approach to
resolve issues crucial in efforts to revive the country's 2015 nuclear deal.
اضافة اعلان
The announcement came shortly before Russia said it would
seek guarantees from the US before it backs the deal, potentially scuppering
hopes the agreement could be wrapped up soon.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the
UN agency and Iran
"did have a number of important matters that we needed... to
resolve", but that they had now "decided to try a practical,
pragmatic approach" to overcome them.
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran President
Mohammed Eslami said the two sides had come to the "conclusion that some documents which
need to be exchanged between the IAEA and the Iranian organization should be
exchanged" by May 22.
Grossi's visit to Tehran comes after Britain, one of the
parties to parallel talks on the deal in Vienna, indicated an agreement was
close.
The 2015 nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since the
US’ unilateral withdrawal in 2018 under then president Donald Trump.
The landmark accord was aimed at guaranteeing Tehran could
not develop a nuclear weapon — something it has always denied wanting to do.
Oil-rich Iran said this week that it was ready to raise its
crude exports "to the pre-November 2018 level" — before punishing
sanctions imposed by the Trump administration started to take effect.
The next few days are widely seen as a decisive point for
negotiations on reviving the accord formally known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
"We are close. E3 negotiators leaving
Vienna briefly to
update ministers on state of play" and were "ready to return
soon", said British delegation head Stephanie Al-Qaq, referring to
negotiators from Britain, France, and Germany.
Russia seeks US guarantees
But Russia's Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday
that Moscow, itself slapped with sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, would
seek guarantees from Washington before backing the nuclear deal.
Lavrov said Russia had requested that the US give it written
guarantees that its sanctions "will not in any way harm our rights to
free, fully-fledged trade and economic and investment cooperation, military-technical
cooperation with Iran".
Russia is party to the ongoing talks in the Austrian capital
to restore the agreement along with Britain,
China, France and Germany. The US
is involved indirectly.
Grossi vowed this week that the IAEA would "never abandon"
its attempts to get Iran to clarify the presence in the past of nuclear
material at several undeclared sites.
Iran has said the closure of the probe is necessary to
clinch a deal.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, deputy head of the Iranian atomic
agency, told television he was hopeful Iran would reach an agreement with the
IAEA during Grossi's visit.
Grossi is expected to hold a news conference on his return
to Vienna.
'Work ongoing'
The coming days are seen as pivotal by the West because of
the rate Iran is making nuclear advances.
Its stockpile of enriched uranium has now reached more than
15 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord, the IAEA said this week.
Several observers believe the West could leave the
negotiating table and chalk the deal up to a failure if a compromise is not
reached this weekend.
The
EU has been chairing nuclear deal negotiations and the
bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday he "hopes to have
results this weekend" to "resurrect the agreement".
He stressed there was "still work ongoing".
Iran's top diplomat, Amir-Abdollahian, said earlier he was
prepared to travel to the Austrian capital if a deal was reached.
"I am ready to go to Vienna when the Western sides
accept our remaining red lines," he said in a phone call with Borrell.
While
Amir-Abdollahian did not define the "red
lines", Iran has repeatedly demanded the right to verify the removal of
sanctions and for guarantees the US will not repeat its withdrawal from the
agreement.
On Thursday, US State Department deputy spokeswoman
Jalina Porter said negotiators were "close to a possible deal", but that
"a number of difficult issues" remained unresolved.
However, "if Iran shows seriousness, we can and should
reach an understanding of mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA
within days", she added.
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