Iran, world powers to speed up Vienna talks

VIENNA: The fourth round of talks between world powers on Iran’s nuclear programme opened in Vienna on Friday, with diplomats voicing hope an agreement can be reached before the Islamic republic’s June presidential election.

The remaining parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal - Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well as Iran, held talks for about an hour at a luxury hotel in the Austrian capital.

The Russian ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted after Friday’s session that “the participants agreed on the need to intensify the process”.

“The delegations seem to be ready to stay in Vienna as long as necessary to achieve the goal,” Ulyanov said.

One diplomatic source told

AFP before Friday’s talks that while “nothing was guaranteed” at the negotiations, they are “on the right track”.

The source expressed hope that the latest talks could be the “final round”.

The aim is a return to full compliance with the 2015 accord, known as the JCPOA, which has been slowly disintegrating since former US president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and Tehran responded by breaking the deal’s limits on its nuclear activities.

Trump’s successor Joe Biden has said he wishes to rejoin the JCPOA, and an American official said on Thursday an agreement was “possible” in the coming weeks, before Iran’s June 18 election.

The US is taking part in the talks indirectly, with European diplomats acting as intermediaries between the Americans and Iranians.