Tehran and representatives of the signatories of the 2015 nuclear pact have paused the talks in Vienna and hope to resume them “urgently” next week. After five months of radio silence from Iran, the return to the discussions in Austria was the occasion to redistribute the letters. But while the new Iranian government of Ebrahim Raisi demands the lifting of economic sanctions, the United States assures that Iran “does not seem to be serious” to save the agreement.
This Friday, November 3, in Vienna, and without great progress, the talks to save the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the nuclear powers (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia and China), in which the United States indirectly participates, were paused. .
The parties closed the seventh round of negotiations without concrete agreements and little positive feelings about the possibilities of rescuing the pact, signed to stop the development of the Iranian nuclear program. The deadlock occurs because Tehran makes compliance with the agreement subject to the total lifting of international sanctions, something that Washington does not seem willing to accept.
The commitment of the parties in Austria is to consult with their governments and resume talks next week. But time is short. “Important challenges await us. Time is not unlimited. There is an evident sense of urgency and we do not have much time, and a lot of work to do,” explained Enrique Mora, number two in the diplomatic service of the European Union and coordinator of the negotiations.
Still as an indirect participant in the negotiations, the United States is suspicious of Iran’s position, which this week had presented two draft proposals to bring positions closer together. “Iran right now does not seem to be serious about doing what is necessary to return to compliance, and that is why we ended this round of talks in Vienna,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained at a press conference in his country. .
“If the road to return to fulfill the agreement turns out to be a dead end, we will look for other options,” he added, without giving further details.
Along the same lines, the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, assured that the Iranian government “did not arrive in Vienna with constructive proposals.” “Iran started this new round of negotiations with a new round of nuclear provocations … and they have not yet reached an agreement with the IAEA to restore the cooperation that they have degraded in recent months,” he said.
This seventh round in six years of discussion, the first since June, began five days ago at the Coburg Palace in Vienna. It was the first meeting with Iranian delegates since the openly anti-Western conservative Ebrahim Raisi took office as president. Mora explained that “new sensitivities of the new Iranian government” are being incorporated on the basis of the documents that were closed in June.
“More than five months ago, Iran interrupted the negotiations. Since then, Iran has accelerated its nuclear program. This week, it has reversed the diplomatic advances made,” they warned. it’s a statement Senior officials from France, the UK and Germany, who added that Iran was demanding “major changes” to the text.
Diplomats indicated that the Iranian delegation had proposed sweeping modifications to a document that was negotiated in detail in previous rounds and that, according to European officials, was 70 to 80 percent complete. Therefore, the discussions had to be paused for each party to consult their governments.
With the nuclear benefits of the deal pretty worn out, some Western officials say there is little time left before the foundations of the deal are hopelessly damaged.
An uncertainty that stalls concessions
The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, has in fact been on hold since the United States withdrew under a “maximum pressure” campaign by then-President Donald Trump against Tehran in 2018. Since then, Iran has multiplied defaults to many. limits of the agreement, such as enriching small amounts of uranium up to 60% purity (weapons-grade uranium requires levels of 90%).
The announcement on Wednesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) further deepened doubts throughout the process. That agency reported that Iran had stepped up uranium enrichment at an underground nuclear facility in Fordo (about 200 kilometers south of Tehran), where all enrichment activity was supposed to cease.
The signatories of the nuclear agreement, with the exception of the United States, (that is, Iran, Russia, China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom) decided to meet urgently at the Coburg Palace in Vienna, a luxury hotel where the pact was signed six years ago. years. The 2015 understanding strictly limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
The United States, still out of official talks, sent a delegation, led by the Biden administration’s special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley. They stayed at a nearby hotel and were informed of the conversations by diplomats from other countries.
In discussions this week, Iran had asked, among other points, that the United States unfreeze $ 10 billion in assets as an initial gesture of goodwill. According to Enrique Mora, in order to reactivate the agreement, the United States must “fully comply” with its commitments, that is, lift the economic sanctions that paralyze Tehran. The same will have to do Iran and stop nuclear developments.
For its part, Iran maintains that its atomic program was never designed to produce nuclear weapons. Or that was before, as US intelligence agencies and international inspectors claim. Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until at least 2003.
The biggest problem according to almost all JCPOA members (except Iran) is that IAEA inspectors were never able to fully monitor Iran’s program because Tehran has always limited total access to its facilities.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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