International negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement have restarted in Vienna after a five-month hiatus, with Washington and Tehran restating their opposite conditions to put the landmark deal back on track.
Negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have restarted in Vienna after a five-month hiatus during which Iran elected a new hard-line president.
"In Vienna, JCPOA Joint Commission...just started," a spokesman for the EU delegation at the negotiations tweeted on November 29, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal, which put strict limits on Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
The talks, which started after 3 p.m. are effectively indirect negotiations between Iran and United States, since Iran refuses to meet face to face with U.S. envoys.
The deal reached by Iran with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia limited Tehran's nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions, while opening it up to greater scrutiny from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog.
But Iran has gradually breached limits imposed by the accord since then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out in 2018 and reinstated crippling U.S. sanctions, despite Iran's compliance with the pact. His successor, Joe Biden, has pledged to rejoin the deal if Iran returns to full compliance, but Tehran wants Washington to make the first move.
As the talks restarted, Washington urged Iran to rejoin the deal, hinting at a tougher U.S. position otherwise, while Tehran demanded that the United States lift all sanctions against the Islamic republic.
"If Iran chooses -- and it really is at this point, I think, an Iranian choice -- if they choose not to go back into the deal, then obviously, we're going to have to see other efforts, diplomatic and otherwise, to try to address Iran's nuclear ambitions," chief U.S. negotiator Robert Malley said.
Iran, meanwhile, reaffirmed its uncompromising position.
"The United States still fails to properly understand the fact that there is no way to return to the deal without a verifiable and effective lifting of all sanctions," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a statement shortly after the talks resumed.
"The return of the U.S. to the nuclear deal would be meaningless without guarantees to prevent the recurrence of the bitter experience of the past," he said. "This opportunity is not a window that can remain open forever."
A quick breakthrough was not expected, with Malley saying in an interview last week that signs from Iran were "not particularly encouraging."
Top EU negotiator Enrique Mora, who is chairing the talks, told reporters that the Iranian delegation had stuck to its demand that all sanctions be lifted. But Mora also sounded optimistic, suggesting Iran had not rejected outright the results of the previous six rounds of talks.
Mora said after the talks that there was "a sense of urgency in bringing the JCPOA back to life" and added that he felt "extremely positive."
Iran's chief negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Khani, was more guarded in his assessment. Asked if he was optimistic about the result of the talks, he curtly told journalists, "Yes, I am."
The talks between Iran and the five remaining signatories began in the Austrian capital in April, with U.S. representatives participating indirectly. The talks were put on hold in June after the election of anti-Western hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi as president.
There have been growing Western concerns over Iran's nuclear advances in its uranium-enrichment program, which is a possible pathway to a nuclear bomb, with some questioning whether Tehran is serious about reaching an agreement.
Iranian officials have maintained the country's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.