TEHRAN — Chief negotiators from
Iran and
Europe returned home for consultations as talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal
reached a critical stage, state media in the Islamic republic said Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
"The negotiators will return to Vienna in two
days" but expert-level discussions at the eighth round of talks would
continue on Saturday and Sunday, IRNA news agency said.
The talks between Tehran and world powers resumed in late
November after they were suspended for around five months as Iran elected a
new, ultraconservative government.
Iran agreed the nuclear deal, formally known as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with Britain, China, France, Germany,
Russia, and the US.
It offered the Islamic republic sanctions relief in exchange
for curbs on its nuclear program.
But former US president
Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew
from the agreement in 2018 and imposed crippling sanctions, prompting Iran to
begin rolling back its commitments.
"We are now at a stage of the negotiations where we are
discussing difficult issues and how we can translate the subjects that we
agreed upon in principle into words and enter them into a document," IRNA
quoted an anonymous source as saying.
"We are discussing the details," the source said,
adding that "this is one of the most tedious, long and difficult parts of
the negotiations, but is absolutely essential for achieving our goal".
The main aims of the negotiations are to get the United
States to return to the deal and lift sanctions, and for Iran to resume full
compliance with the accord.
Tehran is seeking verification of the sanctions easing, as
well as guarantees that Washington will not withdraw from the deal again.
"Regarding the three subjects (lifting of sanctions,
nuclear commitments and implementation, sequencing and verification), there are
still open issues and some of them are tough," the source said.
The return of the negotiators to their capitals came as EU
foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday that a deal with Iran
remained "possible", and that the talks were advancing in a
"better atmosphere" than before Christmas.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on
Monday said the efforts by "all parties" to revive the nuclear
agreement had resulted in "good progress".
French Foreign Minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian recently noted
progress in the talks, but said it was "too slow".
US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken said on Thursday that
only "a few weeks" were left to save the 2015 deal, and that
Washington would consider "other options" if the negotiations fail.
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