VIENNA (AP) – Officials from five world powers began a new effort on Tuesday to try to bring the United States back to the failed 2015 nuclear deal they signed with Iran, a delicate diplomatic dance that underscores the concerns and interests of both Washington. like Tehran.
The Vienna meeting of envoys from Russia, China, Germany, France, Great Britain and Iran came because the US was about to start its own indirect talks with Iran. It would be one of the first signs of tangible progress in efforts to get both nations back to the accord, which curtailed Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from US and international sanctions.
After the closed meetings of the signatories to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Russian delegate, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted that the initial talks were “successful”.
“JCPOA’s recovery will not happen immediately. It will take time. How long? Nobody knows, ”he wrote. “The most important thing after today’s meeting of the Joint Committee is that the practical work to achieve this goal has begun.”
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the accord, opting for what he called a maximum pressure campaign with restored and additional US sanctions.
Since then, Iran has been steadily breaking restrictions in the deal, such as the amount of enriched uranium it can store and the purity with which it can be enriched. Tehran’s measures are calculated to pressure the other countries in the deal to do more to offset the crippling US sanctions re-imposed under Trump.
US President Joe Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama when the original deal was negotiated, has said he wants to bring the US back into the JCPOA, but Iran must reverse its violations.
Iran argues that the US violated the deal first with the withdrawal, so Washington must take the first step by lifting the sanctions.
After the meeting in Vienna, Iranian state television quoted Iran’s negotiator Abbas Araghchi as repeating that message during the opening round of talks.
“The lifting of US sanctions is the first and most necessary action to revive the deal,” said Araghchi. “Iran is fully ready to reverse its activities and return to full implementation of the deal immediately after it has been verified that sanctions have been lifted.”
During the meeting, the participants agreed to establish two expert-level groups, one on sanction lifting and one on nuclear issues, which “had the task of identifying concrete measures to be taken by Washington and Tehran to ensure full implementation. from JCPOA “, tweeted.
They should go to work immediately and report their conclusions to the key negotiators.
The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing an atomic bomb, something it insists it does not want. Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed.
In the latest violation announced, Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s civilian nuclear program, said officials had begun mechanical testing of an IR-9 prototype centrifuge. That centrifuge would enrich uranium 50 times faster than the IR-1s allowed under the accord, he said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
The clock is ticking in trying to get the US back to the deal, with the goal of bringing Iran back to the rules, with a number of issues to consider.
In late February, Iran began to restrict international inspections of its nuclear facilities, but some access was retained under a last-minute deal elaborated on a trip to Tehran by Rafael Grossi, the head of the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog.
Under the agreement, Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the IAEA, but has pledged to keep the tapes for three months. It will then hand them over to the IAEA if it gets a penalty waiver. Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the recordings, shortening the time for a diplomatic breakthrough.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also urged the US to act quickly in March, noting that Washington will face a government incapable of making progress in the nuclear talks as the elections coming up in June.
Additionally, one of the JCPOA’s key so-called sunset clauses, a United Nations arms embargo on Iran, passed last year and others will expire in the coming years.
The small negotiating window will make it even more difficult for the US to try to bring new concerns into the deal, such as Iran’s regional influence and its ballistic missile program.
Although he did not participate in the JCPOA talks, a US delegation led by government special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, was also in the Austrian capital.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the delegation was on hand to hold talks structured around the working groups formed by Europeans.
Price said Monday that the talks are a “healthy step forward,” but added that “we are not anticipating an early or immediate breakthrough as these discussions, we fully expect, will be difficult.”
“We currently do not expect there will be any direct talks with Iran,” he said. “Although of course we remain open to them. And so we’ll have to see how it goes. ”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that it is valuable to have US diplomats on the ground in Vienna, even though they will not hold direct talks with Iran.
“I think it’s important to convey to our partners … that we believe diplomacy is the best step forward,” said Psaki.
Zarif reiterated Iran’s position on Friday that no additional talks on the JCPOA are needed, as the deal and its parameters have already been negotiated.
‘No meeting between Iran and the US. Needless, ”he tweeted.
The JCPOA Joint Committee was scheduled to meet again on Friday, and in the meantime, Enrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired the talks, said he would reach all parties individually.
“As a coordinator, I will intensively separate the contacts here in Vienna from all relevant parties, including the US,” he tweeted.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, asked for Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ response to the meetings, said: “We welcome all these efforts of the JCPOA participants … to engage in a constructive dialogue. We hope this is a first step in the right direction. “
Associated Press writers, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran contributed.