BRUSSELS, Belgium — The United States and Iran will
open indirect talks next week in Vienna as the European Union spearheads
efforts to bring President Joe Biden’s administration back into a nuclear
accord.
اضافة اعلان
Participants in the accord over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions —
including China, France, Germany, Russia, and Britain — will meet in-person on
Tuesday in the Austrian capital, the European Union said after a video
conference.
The United States will not take part directly but, for the
first time since former leader Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in
2018, a US delegation will be present.
The European Union said its mediator will hold “separate
contacts” with the United States in Vienna.
The painstakingly negotiated 2015 accord saw Iran granted
relief from international sanctions in exchange for accepting limits on its
nuclear program aimed at easing fears it could acquire an atomic weapon.
Biden has promised to rejoin the agreement on condition Iran
first returns to respecting commitments it abandoned in retaliation for Trump
pulling out and reimposing swinging sanctions.
Tehran says Washington has to end the sanctions before it
will make any moves to get back in line, and is refusing to hold direct
negotiations with the US.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted the
aim of the talks was to “rapidly finalize sanction-lifting and nuclear measures
for choreographed removal of all sanctions, followed by Iran ceasing remedial
measures”.
“No Iran-US meeting. Unnecessary,” he wrote on Twitter.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price called the Vienna
talks a “healthy step forward” and said Washington “remains open” to a direct encounter with Tehran.
He cautioned that “these remain early days, and we don’t
anticipate an immediate breakthrough as there will be difficult discussions
ahead”.
The deputy State Department spokeswoman, Jalina Porter, said
sanctions relief steps will be “up for discussion” but declined to elaborate
further.
‘Substantial work ahead’
EU diplomat Enrique Mora described Friday’s virtual meeting
that he chaired as “positive”, but warned there was much left to do to revive
the deal.
“Substantial work ahead for a key opportunity to bring JCPOA
back to life,” he tweeted, using the acronym for the nuclear deal’s formal
name.
A senior EU official said Brussels — which acts as
coordinator — hoped to see a final agreement on a US return to the deal within
the next two months.
The official said two groups of experts from the remaining
participant countries would work simultaneously, with one focused on US
sanctions and the other on rolling back Iran’s breaches.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said it was “good that
all the relevant actors would meet in Vienna next week”.
“We have no time to waste. A treaty that is fully respected
once again would be a plus for security throughout the region,” he said.
Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov said “the impression is
that we are on the right track but the way ahead will not be easy and will
require intensive efforts. The stakeholders seem to be ready for that”.
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