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Progress in Iran Nuclear Talks 04/19 06:09
High-level talks in Vienna aimed at bringing the United States back into the
2015 nuclear deal with Iran are moving ahead with experts working on drafting
proposals this week, but a solution remains "far away," Russia's delegate said
Monday.
BERLIN (AP) -- High-level talks in Vienna aimed at bringing the United
States back into the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran are moving ahead with experts
working on drafting proposals this week, but a solution remains "far away,"
Russia's delegate said Monday.
The U.S. unilaterally left the agreement, which promises Iran economic
incentives in return for curbs on its nuclear program, in 2018 under then
President Donald Trump, who said it needed to be renegotiated and imposed
crippling sanctions.
In response, Iran has steadily been violating the restrictions set by the
deal, by enriching uranium far past the purity allowed and stockpiling vastly
larger quantities, in a thus-far unsuccessful effort to force the other
countries involved to provide economic relief that would offset the American
sanctions.
U.S. President Joe Biden wants to return Washington to the deal, and Iran
has been negotiating with the five remaining powers -- Germany, France,
Britain, China and Russia -- for the past two weeks on how that might take
place. Diplomats from the world powers have been shuttling between the Iranian
delegation and an American one, which is also in Vienna but not talking
directly with the Iranian side.
Two expert groups have been brainstorming solutions to the two major issues:
The rollback of American sanctions on one hand, and Iran's return to compliance
on the other.
Now, said Russian representative Mikhail Ulyanov, "we can note with
satisfaction that the negotiations (are) entering the drafting stage."
"Practical solutions are still far away, but we have moved from general
words to agreeing on specific steps towards the goal," he wrote on Twitter.
Already on Saturday, Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said
that Tehran had proposed draft agreements that could be a basis for
negotiations.
"We think that the talks have reached a stage where parties are able to
begin to work on a joint draft," Araghchi told Iranian state television. "It
seems that a new understanding is taking shape, and now there is agreement over
final goals."
"The path is better known, but it will not be easy path," Araghchi added.
"It does not mean that differences of views have come to the end."
Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told Fox News Sunday that
the Vienna talks had been "constructive," but he wouldn't give specific details
on the proposals.
"What I will say is that the United States is not going to lift sanctions
unless we have clarity and confidence that Iran will fully return to compliance
with its obligations under the deal," he said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted by the
country's official IRNA news agency Monday as saying that there was "some
progress in the talks, but it doesn't mean the resolution of differences."
"We think the U.S. administration knows better than anyone that Iran's
actions are within the framework of the nuclear deal and they will be halted
when the U.S. lifts sanctions and we can verify that," he said.
The ultimate goal of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action, or JCPOA, is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something
it insists it doesn't want to do. Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make
a bomb, but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed.
Challenges also remain outside of the negotiations.
An attack suspected to have been carried out by Israel recently struck
Iran's Natanz nuclear site, causing an unknown amount of damage. Tehran
retaliated by beginning to enrich a small amount of uranium up to 60% purity,
its highest level ever. International inspections also could be disrupted
without an agreement.
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