Talks with Iran to prevent collapse of nuclear deal will resume in Vienna

Talks with Iran to prevent collapse of nuclear deal will resume in Vienna
November 29, 2021, 4:03 am

Iran map

The BBC reported that critical talks with Iran to prevent the collapse of a nuclear deal are to resume in Vienna after five months.

It said that officials will discuss the possible return of the US to the 2015 accord, which limited Iran's nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions.

It mentioned that Iran has violated key commitments since then-President Donald Trump pulled out in 2018 and reinstated US sanctions.

According to the BBC, Joe Biden is willing to lift them if Iran reverses the breaches. But it wants the US to make the first move.

Joe Biden-USA President-USA/Shutterstock

Western diplomats have warned that time is running out to negotiate a solution because of the significant advances Iran has made in its uranium enrichment programme, which is a possible pathway to a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

The talks between Iran and the five countries still party to what is known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK - began in the Austrian capital in April, with US representatives participating indirectly.

The Iranian foreign ministry has said they want an "admission of culpability" from the US; the immediate lifting of all US sanctions; and a "guarantee" that no future US president would unilaterally abandon the deal again.

Mr Biden's special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, has said the US is prepared to take all of the steps necessary to come back into compliance, including lifting the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration that crippled Iran's economy.

But Mr Malley has also warned Iran that the "window for negotiations... will not be open forever".

He said at a briefing last month: "This is not a chronological clock, it's a technological clock. At some point, the JCPOA will have been so eroded because Iran will have made advances that cannot be reversed, in which case we can't be talking - you can't revive a dead corpse."

Source: BBC

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