Iran and world powers have made some progress on how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal that was later abandoned by the United States, and an interim agreement could be a way to gain time for a lasting solution, Iranian officials said Monday.
Tehran and the powers met in Vienna in early April to work on the measures to be taken, referring to US sanctions and violations of the agreement by Iran, to bring Tehran and Washington back in full compliance with the agreement.
“We are on the right track and some progress has been made, but this does not mean that the talks in Vienna have reached the final stage,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference. weekly in Tehran.
“Practical solutions are still a long way off, but we have moved from general words to an agreement on specific steps to achieve them,” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the UN nuclear security agency (IAEA), wrote on Twitter on Monday.
The administration of US President Joe Biden, who took office in January, has pledged to join the agreement, saying it is ready to remove “all sanctions that are incompatible” with the agreement, but did not specify what the measures mean.
Iran’s clerical unit has said it will not return to strict compliance with the 2015 agreement, unless all sanctions imposed or added by former President Donald Trump after it renounced the agreement in 2018 will be lifted first.
Diplomats say the steps taken by each side can provide a solution, while Iranian officials told Reuters that talks in Vienna could generate an interim agreement to make room for diplomacy for a lasting solution.
“The May deadline is approaching … What is being discussed in Vienna in the short term are the main broad lines of an interim agreement to give all parties more time to resolve complicated technical issues,” an Iranian official said.
He referred to a hard-line law passed by the Iranian parliament, which obliges the government to strengthen its nuclear position if sanctions are not lifted.
The law required the cessation of UN nuclear inspections with short notice on February 21, but Tehran and the IAEA agreed to maintain “necessary” monitoring for up to three months.
Iran’s main nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, told Iranian state media that “there is no discussion on an interim agreement or similar topics in the Vienna talks.”
However, another Iranian official said that if a political agreement was reached on technical measures to remove all sanctions, Tehran could suspend 20% purity enrichment in exchange for the release of blocked Iranian funds in other countries. .
Iran says its $ 20 billion in oil revenues have been frozen in countries such as South Korea, Iraq and China under the 2018 US sanctions regime.
“Unlocking Iran’s funds is a good start. An interim agreement will give us time to work to eliminate all sanctions imposed on Iran,” the second Iranian official said.
Asked for comments, a US State Department spokesman said talks were continuing in Vienna and that the US team “explored concrete approaches to the steps that both Iran and the US should take to return to mutual respect ”.
“Discussions have been thorough and careful, albeit indirect … There has been no progress, but we did not expect this process to be easy or quick,” he added, saying delegations should return home for consultations at a moment given. but he did not know when.
In addition to the sanctions imposed in 2018, Trump has added new ones, including the classification of Iran’s elite revolutionary guards as a terrorist group and the designation of the Central Bank of Iran in connection with allegations of terrorist financing.
EU SEES GOOD WILL TO SAVE THE 2015 OFFER
The European Union’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he saw the desire to save the 2015 agreement, citing progress in the Vienna talks. Read more
“I think both sides are really interested in reaching an agreement and have gone from general issues to more focused issues, which are clearly, on the one hand, lifting sanctions and, on the other hand, nuclear implementation issues. “, he said. .
Iran has violated the nuclear limits of the agreement since Washington withdrew, recently raising uranium enrichment to 20% fissile purity, a significant step toward quality material.
The 2015 pact limited the level of purity of enrichment to 3.67% – suitable for the generation of civilian nuclear energy.
Complicating Biden’s goal of resuming the deal, Tehran last week launched a 60% purity enrichment at its main plant in Natanz after a devastating blast blamed on Israel’s sabotage, which opposes diplomacy with Iran. .
About 90% fission purity is required for a nuclear explosive, Tehran has repeatedly denied trying to enrich its weapons, although Western intelligence and the IAEA believe it once had an underground atomic bomb program that was archived in 2003. .
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.