The new working groups are intended to create a roadmap for a synchronized return of both countries to compliance. But even if there is agreement, the verification will take a while, given the technical complications and the absence of trust on both sides.
For example, companies that want to do business with Iran, and which were badly burned when Mr. Trump has reinstated strong US sanctions, wants to be sure a new government will not reintroduce sanctions. Iran will want to see economic benefits, not just its promise, and the United States wants the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that Iran returns to compliance and does not cheat, as in the past.
In Vienna, Iran met with the other current members of the agreement – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, chaired by the European Union – in a large hotel ball, while the US team, led by Special Envoy Robert Malley, met separately. worked in a nearby hotel. Iran refused to meet directly with the United States, so the Europeans undertook a kind of shuttle diplomacy.
The United States also wants to persuade Iran to negotiate longer periods for the agreement and to start further talks on limiting Iran’s missiles and support for allies and Shiite militias through the region, including in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Iran has said it has no interest in considering further negotiations before the United States restores the status quo ante and rejoins the agreement.
More generally, US officials are trying to determine whether the United States and Iran can agree on how each can once again comply with the nuclear deal – or, at the very least, work to bridge any gaps in mutual understanding.
Iran was represented by Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister, who was instrumental in negotiating the 2015 agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, with the administration of President Barack Obama and Mr. Biden, then vice president.
Mr. Araghchi said in a statement after the talks that lifting US sanctions would be the first and most necessary step in reviving the JCPOA. US sanctions are lifted and verified. ”