Indirect negotiations between the US and Iran to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, resumed in Vienna on Monday.
The talks resumed after being stalled since June, around the time Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was elected. The new rounds of negotiations are being brokered by the EU and are being held in the same format as the previous ones.
Officials representing Iran and the remaining JCPOA signatories — China, Russia, Germany, the UK, and France — met at the Palais Coburg, a hotel where the agreement was signed in 2015. The US delegation, led by Biden’s special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, was at a nearby hotel and was briefed by EU officials and diplomats from the other countries.
After Monday’s meetings concluded, EU Enrique Mora was optimistic and said Iran’s new delegation made it clear that it was to engage in “serious work” to revive the JCPOA. “I feel positive that we can be doing important things for the next weeks,” he said.
Mora also recognized that US sanctions on Iran have a devastating impact on the civilian population. “There is a sense of urgency in putting an end to the suffering of the Iranian people,” he said, referring to the sanctions.
Mora said the Iranian delegation agreed to pick up where the last round of negotiations left off in June. “They have accepted that the work done over the first six rounds is a good basis to build our work ahead,” he said.
During the first six rounds that lasted from April to June, the Biden administration refused to lift all Trump-era sanctions. The US and Iran eventually agreed to a deal that would lift most major sanctions, but the two sides remained far apart on key issues.
One of the main issues was over Iran’s concern that the US would leave the JCPOA again. A report from Responsible Statecraft revealed that President Biden refused to guarantee he would stay in the deal during the remainder of his term in office.
Ahead of Monday’s talks, Iran reiterated that it wants all Trump-era sanctions lifted and a guarantee that the US wouldn’t leave the deal again. “The United States still fails to properly understand the fact that there is no way to return to the deal without verifiable and effective lifting of all sanctions imposed on the Iranian nation after the US departure,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said.
The Biden administration has been clear that it does not want to lift all Trump-era sanctions and even imposed new sanctions in the weeks leading up to the new talks. Despite the fact that the two sides appear to be so far apart, Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, told reporters he was “optimistic” after Monday’s meeting concluded.
I give the Iranians a huge “E” for effort. (!)
The sanctions are A-Typical for the US that always wants to eat its cake, whether or not it has finished its dinner…
It seems logical to my mind, lift the damn sanctions and move forward in ways that would be entirely positive to all and it would be about bloody time.
Iran needs to be acknowledged, it also needs to be listened to and heard.
Sanctions and dictates are counter productive and stifle any meaningful progress.
Iran, having dealt with these sanctions for so long, deserves a breath of fresh air
and the ability to breath that air without constraints.
There is an opportunity for everyone to come out of all of this with some positive movements but only if the chains are removed thus allowing everyone to speak openly, honestly and productively.
And it is about bloody time!
Here is an article that looks at a projected timeline for Iran’s nuclear breakout:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2021/11/irans-nuclear-weapon-breakout-timeline.html
With this information in mind, one has to wonder how long it will be before both the United States and Israel take military action to destroy Iran’s ability to further enrich its stockpile of uranium, dragging the world into yet another war.
Correct. At this point, Iran could produce enough raw material for one bomb in a month, manufacture one, test it and have nothing left and it only took them a year to get to this point. Too bad we didn’t have an agreement where we could monitor this suspicious activity. Oh wait, we did but Trump broke it. This activity is not suspicious. It is to force us back into the agreement.
Ohhhhhhh … pity. Whatever can we do?
I know, let’s reenter the deal. Iran eliminates this stockpile and as long as we do not break the agreement, if Iran does this again then we can conclude that they are building a nuclear weapon.
Biden — not a person but a collective posture — cannot move on, unless something has changed in the collegium that shapes Iranian policy. So far, with Clinton/Obama era craftsmen of ME policy in key positions, does not look promising. Hopefully, people remember that Obama administration signed the deal in bad faith, and EU called US bluff. EU predicted right of the bat that US would impede investments and throttle financial channels, thus investments in Iran were risky.
Trump just did it openly, no mask.
Anything changed today? Let me guess, we reached conclusion that due to weakened US hand in ME, Iran cannot be attacked?
US needs at least one strong Arab proxy to start a war, to come in and unleash its power. Today, we no longer have such candidates. Israel is most likely to continue sabotage activities, not risking direct war between the two.
So now in the name of humanity and poor Iranian people, we are willing to talk. Talk, that is all.
Iran expects lifting of sanctions and US guarantees that a new agreement would not be abandoned. And that cannot be granted. So back to talking, being one and only US concession.
My prediction? The collegium of foreign policy direction will not allow Biden and his craftsmen of day to day execution of policy to move any further. The current collegium is comprised of people who often mention “lessons of history” meaning only they know it. And these often go back to distant past and historical mistakes to be corrected. If there is a possibility for change it would have to come from a more pragmatic influencers. Those that see problems that inflation brings — a result of thousands upon thousands of overlapping sanctions, tariff wars, and regime change investments. These investments in other countries media, influencers in the field of politics, art, academia, civil society, judiciary, etc. are expensive.
Any such reassessment may bring about change of focus. Perhaps AUKUS is one of the consequences. Perhaps French-Italian newfangled alliance to focus on Mediterranean. What role will Germany play? Other Europeans? Is this just to avoid unpleasant meeting in NATO where annoying Turkey and Hungary have a vote?
Or many more causes for such reorganization?
Do we understand or not, something is happening.
Hard to see how anyone can be optimistic.
For US, it is always “Talks to Restrict the Iran Nuclear Deal Resume in Vienna”…!
I see only one outcome, a nuclear Iran. Perhaps it will be a threshold power, perhaps it will be like Israel.
It did not have to be this way. It is not best this way. But the US and Israel have made it this way by their own actions, which nobody else has been able or willing to overcome.
Uh oh. Admitting that Iranian people are suffering will only encourage the U.S. to continue maximum aggression. The entire point is to make Iranians suffer to make them dislike their govt. We do not care about them at all.
All the sanctions, like the USA’s punishing of so many other countries, are illegal and cruel, yet the USA which left the deal refuses to lift them. Bullying and threats are the USA’s usual behavior and they get away with it. The rest of us need to unite against this “leadership” , allow sovereignty of all nations and stop the unfair treatment of Iran, which is not aggressive and wants no nukes, and Israel, which is aggressive and violent and also has “secret” nukes. What hypocrisy we see.