US Says ‘Meaningful Progress’ Made in Iran Nuclear Talks

The State Department said “meaningful progress” has been made during indirect negotiations with Iran to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. Several rounds of talks have been held in Vienna, and a fifth-round is set to begin next week.

“The latest round of talks in Vienna were positive, and we saw meaningful progress,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. The spokesperson added that there are “important differences” that need “to be addressed” in the next round of talks.

Because President Biden refuses to lift all Trump-era sanctions on Iran, the two sides have been negotiating what sanctions the US is willing to lift and what is acceptable relief for Tehran. On Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also reported positive progress and said the US agreed to lift most major sanctions.

After the fourth round of talks wrapped up earlier this week, other parties to the negotiations also had positive things to say. The European Union has been moderating the talks, and the EU envoy in Vienna said he expects an agreement to be reached soon.

US officials have previously tried to portray Iran as the difficult party to the talks and accused Tehran of making “unreasonable demands” for sanctions relief. But the reality is, the US is the party that violated the agreement, and it has the power to restore the deal at any time by lifting sanctions.