Progress suggests that a deal could possibly be enthoded before Iran’s presidential election in June.
First on Wednesday, May 19, 2021 13. 08 BST
U. S. and Iranian negotiators are aiming for a final circular of talks in Vienna next week on the terms of Washington’s return to the nuclear deal, Iran’s chief negotiator said, suggesting a deal is possible before Iran’s June presidential election.
The delegations, meeting in Vienna as part of a fourth round of talks, agreed on Wednesday to return to national capitals to obtain final commands on the remaining red lines ahead of a final round of talks that will begin on Tuesday.
“I think smart progress has been made in the talks over the last two weeks. Some key issues have remained unresolved, and require additional consideration, and decisions are to be made about them in capitals,” said Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s chief negotiator. EU negotiator Enrique Mora said he was confident a deal would be reached, but diplomats deeply concerned about the talks warned that much remains to be done.
Discussions on 3 main topics: the express sanctions that the United States is willing to lift; when Iran is allowed to re-engage in its steps to walk away from the deal; and how to deal with the wisdom that Iran has acquired during the many months in which it has not fully complied with the agreement, adding its uranium enrichment to 60% purity.
The U. S. is ready to lift some sanctions that oppose Iranian government entities, but says those imposed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are not similar to nuclear non-proliferation, predate the 2015 nuclear deal and will therefore have to remain. Continued sanctions opposing the IRGC would be difficult for Tehran to swallow, even if they do not themselves slow down the recovery of the Iranian economy.
The greater the number of entities released from sanctions, the less difficult it will be for the UK to pay off a £400 million debt to Iran, which is seen as an impediment to the release of some British and Iranian citizens with dual nationality.
Nor are the talks about how to restrict Iran’s use of the wisdom it has acquired, by adding through increased use of complex centrifuges, to increase its potential break-up time, resolved.
EU diplomats have warned of a serious crisis if Iran cannot reach an agreement this weekend to extend a three-month deal it reached with the UN nuclear inspection in February that ensures that the International Atomic Energy Agency’s cameras continue to film Iranian weapons sites itself detained through Iran.
If the deal is not renewed by the weekend’s expiration date, Iran will erase all video recordings of activities at its nuclear sites, leaving U. N. nuclear inspectors blind to what has been happening at the sites since February. the collapse of the last vestige of the agreement and is likely to derail the talks that will resume next week.
A European diplomat said: “Iran allows the IAEA to continue its mandatory monitoring and verification work. “
Outgoing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani insisted Wednesday that Iranian negotiators were acting according to the rules set through Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and had relayed the commands to the team in Vienna.
“I promise the other Iranians that the talks in Vienna will end with the victory of the Iranian nation, and very wonderful progress has been made in this regard. If you push aside national interests to stick to the interests of factions and parties, they have betrayed the country,” he said.
On Monday, Iran’s parliament, under the leadership of the hard-stood, reaffirmed that Iran does not deserve to be forced to comply fully until it has verified that the United States has lifted sanctions.
Iran’s position on sequencing is backed by Russia, which is a signatory to the deal with France, the UK, Germany and China. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister and leading nuclear negotiator, suggested Iran and the U. S. comply simultaneously, closer to the Americans’ negotiating position.
The talks are being played out in a political environment that has been cut off in Tehran ahead of the June 18 election, with conservative candidates still skeptical of the 2015 deal with the US accused through Rouhani of not seeing the talks fail. the reformers, anxious to justify their initial resolution to mark the agreement, are eager to see it revived and, in all likelihood, increasing their slim electoral chances.
Reformers argue that Iran’s oil-dependent economy will not fully recover if U. S. and European sanctions remain in place. Conservatives say that a resistance economy can independently of the West and locate new markets. Reformers were severely weakened by Trump’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018. however, opinion polls show an aid for the return.
The backdrop of violence in Gaza would likely make it difficult for the Biden administration to sell the deal to the US Congress. U. S. Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toured the television studios and warned that any deal with Iran would give Tehran billions of dollars to invest in Hamas. rockets in a position to be introduced into Israel.
Iran’s Guardian Council, the 12-member UN-elected body tasked with getting rid of insufficiently pious candidates, will announce within the next 48 hours the exclusion of declared presidential candidates. participation, and leaks recommend that officials are also preparing to limit social media for the campaign.
A maximum of six applicants are expected to be allowed to run, and reformers will join one single candidate, namely Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri, a television polemicist and former President Ali Larijani.
The reformers failed to convince Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to stand up and face the prospect of Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the judiciary, winning, giving conservatives a blank slate of Iran’s political institutions.