(Washington) Negotiations to salvage the deal on Iran’s nuclear program, stalled since June, will resume on November 29 in Vienna amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
The Iranian government and the European Union, the main mediator in these indirect talks between Washington and Tehran, simultaneously announced this long-awaited date on Wednesday.
Concretely, the countries still members of the agreement concluded in 2015 (Iran, Germany, China, France, United Kingdom, Russia) will meet in the Austrian capital on November 29 under the chairmanship of European negotiator Enrique Mora, declared the chief. from EU diplomacy Josep Borrell in a statement.
He explained that the discussions would focus “on the prospect of a possible return of the United States” in this text which they unilaterally abandoned in 2018 under the presidency of Donald Trump, and “on how to ensure the implementation full and effective implementation of the agreement by all parties ”.
Iranian vice-minister in charge of nuclear energy, Ali Baghéri, confirmed on Twitter that he had given the green light to the resumption of negotiations on that date to “lift the illegal and inhuman sanctions” against Tehran.
The United States welcomed the announcement of the resumption of negotiations in which it would participate with its envoy for Iran, Rob Malley.
Iran said it was ready to resume negotiations in Vienna in November after intense negotiations with European diplomats, but had not yet set a precise date, demanded with increasing insistence by The big powers.
By judging the 2015 agreement insufficient, Donald Trump had reinstated three years later all the sanctions against Iran that he had initially allowed to be lifted. In return, Tehran has gradually freed itself from the restrictions imposed on its nuclear program.
“If the Iranians are serious”
In the White House since January, the current President of the United States, Joe Biden, has said he is ready to return to the agreement, also known by its acronym JCPOA, on condition that the Islamic Republic simultaneously renews its commitments.
Indirect discussions between the two enemy countries, which do not have diplomatic relations, opened in April in Vienna, to define which sanctions Washington must lift and a timetable for the return of Tehran in the nails of the agreement. But they have been at a standstill since the election in June of a new ultra-conservative Iranian president whose real intentions are increasingly questioned by Americans and Europeans.
“We believe that it is possible to reach an agreement quickly, and to implement it as quickly,” US diplomacy spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday.
He assured that only “a relatively limited number of issues” were still “open” when the talks were suspended in June.
“We believe that if the Iranians are serious, we can do this fast enough,” he added, warning that the “window of fire” was not “going to remain open indefinitely”.
The West, but also Russia, demand that the Iranians return to the negotiating table on the basis of the result obtained in the first six sessions, and do not demand to start from scratch. In Washington, one especially suspects more and more Iran, which has multiplied the nuclear advances in recent months, of wanting to gain time without really intending to succeed.
The Biden government is now warning that it is working on “other options,” including the use of force, if diplomacy fails.
The Iranian authorities, for their part, claim to be wary of the United States, which has already turned around at the whim of democratic changes, and ask for “guarantees” of a lasting return to the agreement which will not be subject to political vagaries. .
“If the current situation does not change, the outcome of the negotiations is already clear,” warned on Twitter, before the announcement of the return to Vienna, the Iranian secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Chamkhani.