Iran said it will “study” the new European Union (EU) proposal to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, after “relative progress” was made during four days of negotiations in Vienna.
“These issues need to be studied in depth and we will give our final answer to the coordinator in Vienna,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The ministry admitted that “relative progress on some issues” had been made in this round of negotiations in the Austrian capital, but did not consider the deal closed.
“The concerns of the Iranian negotiating team are to uphold the rights of the Iranian people, protect their interests, ensure the implementation of the other side’s commitments, and prevent the United States from repeating illegal acts,” the statement said.
The negotiations ended on Monday, with the EU, the coordinator of the talks, presenting a proposal, the head of European diplomacy confirmed on Tuesday.
“Behind each technical question and each paragraph there is a political decision that must be taken in the capitals”, warned Josep Borrell, adding that “if these answers are positive, we can sign this agreement”.
After a blockade of several months, diplomats from all parties – Iran, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany – returned to Vienna on Thursday with the aim of recovering the moribund agreement of 2015.
The pact, called the Joint Global Plan of Action (JCPOA) is intended to ensure the civilian character of the Iranian nuclear program, accused of claiming to possess the atomic weapon, despite Tehran’s denials.
Tehran has been participating for more than a year in direct negotiations with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and China, and indirectly with the United States, to relaunch the agreement.
The Vienna negotiations aim to bring the United States back to this agreement, from which it unilaterally withdrew in 2018 during the Trump administration, in particular through the lifting of sanctions against Iran and guarantees of Tehran’s full respect for its commitments.
The 2015 deal gave Iran a relaxation of sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program to ensure that Tehran can never develop a nuclear weapon, which it has always denied intending to do.
However, after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States and the reimposition of economic sanctions on Tehran, Iran also began to renege on its commitments and began a gradual acceleration of its uranium enrichment.
Iran’s latest move came on Monday, when it began pumping gas to 500 advanced centrifuges, in reaction to recent US sanctions against six Asian companies for facilitating Iranian oil exports.
The current president of the United States, Joe Biden, said after his inauguration that he wanted to return to the agreement.
Source: Observadora
