Ned Price: Challenges Persist Despite Progress in JCPOA Negotiations

The spokesperson for the U.S. State Department has spoken of progress made in negotiations aimed at reviving the nuclear agreement with Iran. Ned Price, however, stated that challenges remain and there is no timeline for the conclusion of the sixth round of talks.

The sixth round of Joint Commission talks on the return of the United States to the nuclear agreement began on Saturday, June 12 (Khordad 22) in Vienna and is still ongoing.

Despite positive assessments of these talks by Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s representative, Enrique Mora, the European Union’s political representative, and even statements by Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s senior negotiator in Vienna talks, Ned Price, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, speaks of challenges that remain unresolved.

Reuters reported from Washington on Ned Price’s comments, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, regarding the JCPOA Joint Commission talks in Vienna. Price spoke of progress achieved in this round of negotiations.

According to the U.S. State Department spokesperson, there are still challenging questions about reaching an agreement. When asked about his belief on how long these negotiations would continue, Price clarified: “I don’t have any timeline for the sixth round of these negotiations.”

Before him, Abbas Araghchi, the deputy political minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran who heads Iran’s negotiating delegation in these talks, had stated that the negotiating parties in the past two months have never been this close to reaching an agreement.

While expressing optimism about the possibility of reaching an agreement before the end of the Rouhani administration’s term, he also spoke of the possibility of continuing these negotiations.

Araghchi emphasized that the progress of negotiations has no direct connection to the presidential elections in Iran. He even did not dismiss the possibility of continuing negotiations by the next government.

Although no detailed explanation of the disputed issues has been provided to the media, diplomats participating in these negotiations have referred to “implementation phases” of the agreement.

The issue, on one hand, concerns the determination of steps that Iran must take to return to its JCPOA commitments, and on the other hand, it concerns the sanctions that the United States must lift.

Source: DW