New Round of Nuclear Negotiations to Begin Monday in Vienna
Negotiations to revive the JCPOA between Iran and world powers will resume on Monday, December 27, in Vienna. Western diplomats say that due to Iran’s nuclear technology advances, only a few weeks remain for the credibility of the JCPOA.
The European Union announced that negotiators from Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA, who are working to revive the nuclear agreement, will resume their negotiations in Vienna on Monday, December 27.
Representatives of the Islamic Republic and five remaining parties to the nuclear agreement conducted six rounds of negotiations from mid-April to late June 2021 to revive the Comprehensive Joint Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The seventh round of Vienna negotiations resumed on December 8 after a several-month pause with the negotiating team of Ibrahim Raisi’s government and was suspended for several days on December 17.
European parties to the nuclear agreement (Britain, France, and Germany) cited Iran’s request as the reason for the pause in negotiations in a joint statement and called it a disappointing move.
Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy chief of the Foreign Ministry and head of the Islamic Republic’s negotiating team, rejected this accusation and described the suspension of negotiations as being in accordance with previous agreements by all parties.
According to Germany’s news agency, Western diplomats believe only a few weeks remain until the 2015 agreement known as the JCPOA expires, as Iran’s nuclear technology advances leave no room for negotiation.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday, welcoming the continuation of Vienna negotiations on Monday: “The other side should have no doubt that if they want to give one concession and take ten concessions, the Islamic Republic of Iran will never accept this method.”
U.S. officials have explicitly stated that if Vienna negotiations do not reach a conclusion, they will impose more severe sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, recently stated in an interview with Sputnik news agency that the Islamic Republic has no intention of enriching uranium beyond 60 percent.
Fuad Hussein, Iraq’s foreign minister, participated in a press conference with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Thursday evening, December 23, during his official visit to Iran.
He emphasized that Iraq’s interests and benefits require that if we can help Iran and the United States sit at the negotiating table, and “we want direct negotiations between Tehran and Washington to take place.”
Iraq’s foreign minister added: “We have told this to the Americans and today and before this we have raised this issue with our brothers in Iran. In a meeting I had with Mr. Amirabdollahian in New York, I told him that it would be better if direct talks between Iran and the United States took place.”
Experts believe that one of the main knots in the Vienna negotiations to revive the JCPOA, whose seventh round recently concluded, is the lack of direct dialogue between Iranian and American delegations as the main parties to the dispute.
Source: DW
