Post-discussion statement raises optimism about progress
Last match 1 Apr 2021 23. 33 BST
A possible advance in stagnant efforts to bring the United States back to the iran nuclear deal is on the horizon after secret diplomatic talks in Frankfurt this week.
The Joint Committee, the framework that brings together existing signatories to the agreement, will meet practically on Friday to discuss the final results of Monday’s assembly amid growing optimism that unforeseen progress will be made.
On Thursday, the EU said the joint committee would be chaired on behalf of EU High Representative Josep Borrell through EU Foreign Service Policy Director Enrique Mora. “Participants will talk about America’s imaginable return to the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA) and how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the agreement across all parties,” he said.
Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States in 2018 from the agreement, which Iran agreed to restrict its uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price, USA welcomed the statement.
“We are in a position to continue to reunite our JCPOA commitments in agreement with Iran, which is also doing the same,” Price said.
The United States is talking to its partners “about how to achieve this, adding through a series of initial mutual steps,” he added.
The joint committee, which includes China, Russia and European states, as well as the EU, meets regularly, however, the time of announcement suggests positive developments, observers said. The last assembly was held on 12 December.
Iran has called on the United States to lift all sanctions and unilaterally return to the agreement it left in 2018.
Although the United States said indirect talks were taking place with Iran’s European intermediaries, there were few signs of progress.
Frustration was unfolding in parts of the Democratic Party that Joe Biden could have left Iran in the background for fear of losing Congress to his ambitious national calendar if he made the decision to lift the economic sanctions imposed through Donald Trump.
Private discussions aimed at an agreement on a framework in which the United States could begin lifting sanctions in exchange for Iran’s express and verifiable measures to return to full compliance with the agreement. Iran has taken a number of reversible measures to reduce its compliance. , adding the expansion of uranium enrichment and cutting UN inspectors at their nuclear sites.
The United States had also at one point called for the agreement to be extended and expanded to include other issues, such as regional security, which Iran had rejected.
Some observers are concerned that Biden perceives the urgency of advancing in Iran’s June presidential election, where extremists who oppose the precept of the agreement will likely triumph in a low-stakes election.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said he was confident that the United States was in a position to engage and added: “I have high hopes that the anti-Iranian inertia that was observed in the first place will give way to common sense. “