US and Iran try in Vienna to resolve their differences
Representatives from Washington and Tehran are in Austria to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani.
AFP
New episode in the endless Iranian nuclear saga: talks resumed Thursday in Vienna, after months of deadlock, to try to settle the last stumbling blocks between Tehran and Washington.
It is the first time since March that all parties (Iran, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany) meet in the Austrian capital in order to save the moribund agreement of 2015, supposed to prevent the Islamic Republic to acquire atomic weapons. The United States participates indirectly in these negotiations, which began in April 2021, with the European Union playing the intermediary. “I think there is a real possibility (to conclude), but it will not be easy,” commented a senior European official in the evening.
Tehran and Washington have yet to agree “on the extent of the sanctions to be lifted and on several nuclear issues that did not exist in March” because of the progress made since by Iran, according to the same source.
“Measured expectations”
On this first day, the bilateral meetings followed one another at the Palais Cobourg, a luxury hotel where the talks are taking place under the aegis of the European Union coordinator Enrique Mora. In the morning, he received the Russian ambassador Mikhail Oulianov, then the Chinese representative Wang Qun and finally the Iranian chief negotiator Ali Bagheri. The latter had called on the United States on Wednesday to “seize this opportunity (…) to act responsibly”. A separate meeting also took place between Iranians and Russians, traditionally close in discussions. According to the EU official, talks are expected to continue until the weekend. Washington’s envoy, Robert Malley, is also present in Vienna.
In a message announcing his trip, he immediately tempered the enthusiasm. “Our expectations are measured but the United States (…) is ready in good faith to try to find an agreement,” he wrote on Twitter. On Thursday, White House security spokesman John Kirby said “time seems increasingly short”. “We are not going to wait forever for Iran to accept the agreement that is on the table,” he said during a press briefing, “urging” Tehran to accept the offer that was made to it. proposed.
After so many failed attempts, so many false alarms, the European diplomat wants to believe that we are finally getting to the end. “We are exhausted, I can’t imagine myself here in four weeks. This is not another discussion session, we are here to finalize the text,” he insisted.
The obstacle of the Guardians removed
After the failure of talks in Qatar at the end of June between Americans and Iranians, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, submitted a draft compromise on July 26 and called on the parties to accept it to avoid a “dangerous crisis” . Both Tehran and Washington have an interest in keeping the diplomatic channel alive for lack of better options, experts note.
“Faced with the range of domestic and international challenges, the United States above all does not want a nuclear crisis with Iran that could escalate into a broader regional conflict”, underlines Suzanne DiMaggio, researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. . The Islamic Republic, for its part, still aspires to the lifting of the sanctions which are suffocating its economy. Among the obstacles removed, Tehran’s demand for the removal of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, from the American blacklist of terrorist organizations “is no longer on the agenda”, has indicated the European official. “This question will be discussed later,” in another setting.
Ditto for the guarantees requested in the event that Joe Biden’s successor goes back on his word: “We now have important guarantees which, I believe, satisfy Iran”, he assured. There remains Tehran’s wish to close an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a delicate subject which is the subject of separate discussions with the UN nuclear policeman. The pact known by its English acronym JCPOA aims to guarantee the civilian nature of the Iranian nuclear program, accused of seeking to acquire atomic weapons despite its denials.
But following the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 at the instigation of Donald Trump and the reinstatement of American sanctions, Tehran has gradually freed itself from its obligations. Iran thus exceeded the uranium enrichment rate of 3.67% set by the JCPOA, rising to 20% at the start of 2021. Then it crossed the unprecedented threshold of 60%, approaching the 90% necessary for the making a bomb.
AFP
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