VIENNA: Indirect addresses between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are close to reaching an agreement, the principal British envoy said on Friday as she and her French and German associates flew home to brief ministers.
“ We’re close. E3 mediators leaving Vienna compactly to modernize Ministers on the state of play. Ready to return soon,” Stephanie Al-Qaq said on Twitter, pertaining to the principal British, French, and German diplomats involved in the addresses.
We are close. E3 negotiators leaving Vienna briefly to update Ministers on state of play. Ready to return soon. #ViennaTalks #EndgameViennaTalks
— Stephanie Al-Qaq (@salqaq) March 4, 2022
Despite the British diplomat’s teasing Twitter post, two sources with direct knowledge said there was still no deal and European and Iranian officers said that Iran’s lead moderator Ali Bagheri Kani was staying in Vienna.
Mediators have worked for 11 months to try to revive the 2015 deal under which Iran limited its nuclear program to make it harder to gain fissile material for a lemon — an ambition Tehran denies — in return for relief from profitable warrants.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Friday the West’s haste to reach a nuclear deal can not help the observance of Iran’s red lines, including profitable guarantees.
Accommodations on reviving the 2015 accord appear near a climax, amid talk of an imminent clerical meeting. Such a meeting, said Amirabdollahian, requires full compliance with the red lines. “ Our delegation will continue to work hard to reach a final and good agreement, Iranian media quoted Amirabdollahian as telling the EU’s top diplomat Joseph Borrell by telephone.
“ We’re ready to finalize a good and immediate agreement,” he said, adding “ Utmost of Iran’s requests have been considered in the forthcoming agreement.”
The United States said Thursday that “ a possible deal” on a new Iranian nuclear accord is close but several sticking points have averted an agreement and time is running out. Mediators meeting in Vienna to try and regain the 2015 nuclear deal have made “ significant progress,” State Department deputy spokesman Jalina Porter told journalists, echoing other nations in recent weeks.
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“ We’re close to a possible deal, but a number of delicate issues still remain unsolved,” she said. “ We’ll not have a deal unless we resolve snappily the remaining issues,” she added.
Still, “ if Iran shows soberness, we can and should reach an understanding of collective return to full perpetration of the JCPOA within days,” she said, using the acronym for the 2015 accord.
On Thursday, the principal Russian diplomat at the addresses said he didn’t suppose they would now collapse and a clerical meeting — generally where a deal would be blessed — was likely but he couldn’t say if it would be on Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Still, there are myriad pieces that must fall into place for a deal to come together. One wildcard is trouble by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve questions about nuclear material that the Vienna- grounded agency suspects Iran failed to declare, another handicap to reaching an agreement to revive the deal.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi will travel to Tehran on Saturday hoping to agree on a process that would lead to the end of the disquisition, potentially clearing a way for the wider agreement, diplomats said.
