The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on Monday he saw a willingness to save the Iran nuclear deal or the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the ongoing talks in Vienna attended by the Iranian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbass Araghchi and envoys from the remaining parties to the deal known as the P4+1.
Borrel also cited progress in talks in Vienna to bring the United States back to the accord, a report by Reuters said on Monday afternoon.
“I think that there is real goodwill among both parties (Iran and the United States) to reach an agreement, and that’s good news,” he said, citing progress but not giving details.
The EU top diplomat added, “I think that both parties are really interested in reaching an agreement, and they have been moving from general to more focused issues, which are clearly, on one side sanction-lifting, and on the other side, nuclear implementation issues.”
The optimism follows comments by China’s envoy to the negotiations, Wang Qun, on Saturday that negotiations were starting to pick up the pace, the report added.
The second round of talks between Iran and envoys from China, Russia, and the three major European countries namely Britain, Germany and France in a bid to revive the nuclear deal began last Thursday in a luxury hotel in Vienna. The United States is not present as Iran has refused to directly talk with Washington that still abides by Trump-era sanctions against Iranian nations. But EU officials are carrying out shuttle diplomacy with a US delegation based at another hotel across the road.
Despite early promises during his presidential campaign, US President Joe Biden has not returned his country to the deal. 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.
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.
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.
KI/5193227
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