Representatives from Iran and the remaining signatories to the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) namely Russia and China and the E3 or the UK, France and Germany have convened for JCPOA Joint Commission in Grand Hotel in Vienna on Tuesday afternoon.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi leads Iran’s delegation which also includes representatives from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Oil Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).
The meeting is chaired by Deputy of European Union Foreign Policy Chief Enrique Mora.
The meeting is scheduled to discuss the verifiable lifting of sanctions against Iran and the prospect of a US return to the JCPOA.
It is worth mentioning that before this meeting as usual, several bilateral and multilateral meetings have been held between the delegations, and these consultations and meetings will continue.
Araghchi is reported to have held a meeting with Enrique Mora and the representatives of Russia, and China as well as the E3 representatives.
Tehran is engaged in Vienna talks with the remaining participants in the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) namely China, Russia, and the three major European countries of Britain, Germany and France in a bid to revive the nuclear deal. The United States is not present as Iran has refused to directly talk with the new US administration that still continues illegal Trump-era sanctions against the Iranian nation.
Despite early promises during his presidential campaign, US President Joe Biden has not returned his country to the deal so far. By doing so, the Biden administration is following in the Trump administration's footsteps and continues to stick to the illegal sanctions on Iran in violation of the nuclear deal. Washington has set illegitimate preconditions for returning to the JCPOA which are strongly rejected by Iran.
After the US exit from the world powers' nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and imposing the unprecedented sanctions on the Iranian nation which was followed by the indifference of the European parties to the need for compensating Iran's losses as a result of the US violations of the international accord, Iran started reducing its JCPOA commitments in five steps and finally suspended voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol on February 22. Tehran recently started 60% enrichment after an "act of sabotage" done reportedly carried out by the Israeli regime on one of its nuclear sites in Natanz. The JCPOA Paragraph 36 allows Iran to diminish its abidance in the case of violations of the deal by other parties.
Iran has vowed that it will change course and will return immediately to its JCPOA commitments as soon as other parties, most notably the Europeans, abide by the provisions of the accord.
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