Iran nuclear talks to continue amid signs of ‘progress’

Iran’s top negotiator says ‘new understanding’ emerging after round of talks in Vienna to restore 2015 nuclear deal.

Tehran, Iran – Another round of talks in Vienna to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers has concluded on a hopeful note as different sides said progress is being made.

The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) convened on Saturday in the Austrian capital with top negotiators from Iran, China, Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

Representatives from the United States, which left the accord in 2018 and unilaterally imposed sanctions on Iran, were again in a different hotel with Europeans shuttling back and forth between them and other representatives.

After the talks, Iran’s top negotiator said a “new understanding” appears to be forming between all sides as the results of the job done by two working groups – one to determine what sanctions the US needs to lift, and one to determine what nuclear measures Iran needs to take – were reviewed.

“There is now a shared view of the end goal between all sides and the path that needs to be taken is a bit better known,” said Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and a veteran negotiator.

“Although it won’t be an easy path. There are some serious differences that will need to be resolved,” he added.

Araghchi said the talks have now reached a stage where all sides can work on a joint text. He said Iran has drafted a text, both on sanction-lifting and on nuclear measures, that will act as the basis for a final agreement.

Enrique Mora, the European Union’s deputy foreign policy chief, said in a tweet following the Joint Commission meeting that “progress has been made” in what is a difficult task and more work is needed, but “everyone is committed to the same objective” of the US rejoining the deal.