Participants decide to speed up N-talks: Iran

VIENNA: Parties to the Iran nuclear agreement on Tuesday decided to “speed up” talks in Vienna, Tehran said, to revive the tatered accord.

The remaining partners to the 2015 deal have been engaged in negotiations since early this month to try to bring the United States back onboard.

Delegates from Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia met for less than two hours to kick off the third round of Eu-chaired negotiations in a Vienna luxury hotel, according to diplomats.

“During the meeting the participants decided to speed up the process of talks,” Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Iran has refused to negotiate with the US directly, but US delegates are staying in an adjacent hotel and are being regularly updated by EU negotiator Enrique Mora’s team in a round of shutle diplomacy.

“Back in Vienna for the JCPOA Joint Commission, experts discussions and separate contacts with US in this third week of talks to advance on our objectives: US rejoining the JCPOA and full implementation of the deal,” Mora wrote on Twiter, using the acronym of the agreement’s formal name.

Negotiators have lauded progress in the talks, but warn there is still a long way to go and details need to be worked out.

“We do see some important progress registered, while we also see some major differences remain at this critical juncture,” Chinese negotiator Wang Qun told reporters ater Tuesday’s meeting.

Mora had said in a column published on Monday on the Spanish site Politica Exterior that “many obstacles” remained, mentioning “domestic politics in Tehran and Washington, where the agreement probably has more detractors than supporters.”

The hope is to achieve a concrete result “by the end of May,” before Iranian presidential elections in June, a diplomat familiar with the discussions said ahead of the latest round.

Separately, Iran’s government said Tuesday an investigation had been ordered into leaked audio of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif bemoaning the military’s influence, ater its emergence stirred controversy ahead of presidential elections.