VIENNA (AP) – Officials from five world powers on Tuesday launched a new effort to try to return to the United States in the founding nuclear deal of 2015 they signed with Iran, a delicate diplomatic dance that needs to balance concerns and interests both Washington and Washington. Tehran.
The meeting in Vienna of envoys from Russia, China, Germany, France, Britain, and Iran occurred when the United States was to begin its own indirect talks with Iran. It would be one of the first signs of tangible progress in efforts to return both nations to the agreement, which restricted Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing U.S. and international sanctions.
Following closed meetings of the signatories to the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan, Russian delegate Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted that the initial talks were “successful”.
“The restoration of JCPOA will not happen immediately. It will take some time. How much time? Nobody knows, ”he wrote. “The most important thing after today’s meeting of the Joint Commission is that practical work has begun to achieve this goal.”
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal, opting for what he called a maximum pressure campaign involving restored and additional U.S. sanctions.
Since then, Iran has consistently violated the restrictions of the agreement, such as the amount of enriched uranium it can store and the purity with which it can be enriched. Tehran’s moves have been calculated to pressure other nations from the deal to do more to offset the crippling U.S. sanctions reimposed under Trump.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who was Barack Obama’s vice president when the original deal was negotiated, has said he wants the U.S. to return to the JCPOA, but that Iran must reverse its violations.
Iran argues that the U.S. violated the agreement first with its withdrawal, so Washington must take the first step by lifting sanctions.
After the meeting in Vienna, Iranian state television quoted Iranian negotiator Abbas Araghchi as reiterating that message during the first round of talks.
“Lifting U.S. sanctions is the first and most necessary action to reactivate the deal,” Araghchi said. “Iran is fully prepared to reverse its activities and return to full implementation of the agreement immediately after verifying that sanctions are lifted.”
At the meeting, participants agreed to establish two expert groups, one on lifting sanctions and one on nuclear issues, which were “responsible for identifying the concrete steps that Washington and Tehran must take to restore the full implementation of the JCPOA, ”Ulyanov tweeted.
They should start working immediately and report their findings to the main negotiators.
The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, which it insists it does not want to do. Now Iran has enough uranium enriched to make a bomb, but almost the amount it had before signing the nuclear deal.
In the latest announced violation, Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s civilian nuclear program, said officials had begun mechanical testing of an IR-9 centrifuge prototype. This centrifuge would enrich uranium 50 times faster than the IR-1s allowed under the agreement, he said, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.
The clock is ticking when it comes to trying to get the United States back on track, with the goal of getting Iran back to fulfilling it, with a number of issues to consider.
In late February, Iran began restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities, but under a last-minute deal drawn up during a trip to Tehran by Rafael Grossi, the head of the atomic dog of the Vienna-based UN, some access was retained.
Under the agreement, Iran will stop sharing surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the IAEA, but has pledged to preserve the tapes for three months. It will then hand them over to the IAEA if it is granted relief from sanctions. Otherwise, Iran has promised to delete the recordings, reducing the window of a diplomatic advance.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also urged the United States to act quickly and noted that as his country’s June elections approach, Washington will face a government incapable of advancing nuclear talks.
In addition, one of the main so-called JCPOA termination clauses, the UN arms embargo on Iran, expired last year and others are due to expire in the coming years.
The small window for negotiation will make it even harder for the U.S. to try to introduce new concerns into the deal, such as Iran’s regional influence and its ballistic missile program.
Although he did not take part in the talks of the JCPOA, a US delegation led by the administration’s special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley was also in the Austrian capital.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the delegation was there to hold structured talks around the working groups that make up the Europeans.
Price said Monday that the talks are a “good step forward,” but added that “we do not anticipate immediate or immediate progress, as these discussions, we fully hope, will be difficult.”
“We do not currently anticipate that there will be direct talks with Iran,” he said. “Although, of course, we remain open to them. And so we have to see how things go. ”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that there was value in having U.S. diplomats in Vienna, although they will not hold direct talks with Iran.
“I think it’s important to convey to our partners … that we believe diplomacy is the best step forward,” Psaki said.
Zarif reiterated on Friday Iran’s position that no further talks on the JCPOA are needed, as the agreement and its parameters have already been negotiated.
“No Iran-US meeting. It’s not necessary, ”he tweeted.
The JCPOA Joint Commission was expected to meet again on Friday, and in the meantime Enrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired the talks, said he would reach out to all parties individually.
“As a coordinator, I will intensely separate contacts here in Vienna with all relevant parties, including the United States,” he tweeted.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ reaction to the meetings, saying: “We welcome all these efforts by JCPOA participants … to maintain a constructive dialogue. We hope that this is a first step in the right direction. “
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Writers from the Associated Press, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran.