BRUSSELS – Iran and the other signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal resumed in Vienna on Thursday to revive the deal, although the atmosphere was hampered in the aftermath of the apparent Israeli attack on a key uranium enrichment area in Iran.
Senior diplomats involved in the talks agreed that the working groups intended to bring Iran and the United States into line with the agreement had made progress.
But after the meeting on Thursday, the head of China’s delegation, Wang Qun, called for a faster pace and less distraction.
“We think that all these developments have strengthened our conviction that what is now needed is the highest priority to remove the disruptive factors and pick up the pace of negotiation here,” he said. Wang, China’s ambassador to the International, said. Atomic Energy Agency.
The senior Russian diplomat, Mikhail Ulyanov, said in a Twitter post that the ‘general impression is positive’. He said that this meeting would be followed “by a number of informal meetings in various formats, including at expert level.”
The talks have been overshadowed in recent days by Iran’s response to an attack on its Natanz uranium enrichment plant on Sunday. Tehran has decided to further increase the enrichment to 60 percent, an important step towards the enrichment of 90 percent that is considered appropriate for a nuclear bomb and a blatant violation of the limits of the 2015 agreement. Iran also said it would replace damaged centrifuges at the Natanz plant with more advanced models banned under the deal.
It was said that the Natanz attack was carried out by Israel, which has regularly criticized the 2015 agreement as weak and is unlikely to limit Iran’s nuclear ambition. U.S. officials have said Israel is responsible for the attack and denies any involvement.
The meeting in Vienna involved senior diplomats from Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia chaired by the European Union. Senior U.S. officials are in a nearby hotel because President Donald J. Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018.
The three European countries, with which the United States has joined, have drawn sharp criticism of Iran’s actions over the past few days, calling them “challenging” and “particularly regrettable” in light of progress made at the Vienna meetings.
“Iran’s recent dangerous communication is contrary to the constructive spirit and good faith of these talks,” they said in a statement, adding that Iran’s enrichment decision was a serious development as the production of highly enriched uranium an important step in the production of a nuclear weapon. ‘
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Wednesday criticized Iran’s intentions. “I must tell you, this move calls into question Iran’s seriousness regarding the nuclear talks, just as it emphasizes the need to return to mutual compliance with nuclear power.”
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is purely civilian.
The talks are designed to bring the United States back into line with the 2015 agreement by negotiating what economic sanctions should be lifted. A second working group focuses on how Iran can reconcile, which Iran deliberately broke as a ‘remedial’ measure, as the economic benefits of the agreement were denied.
The talks were reportedly positive, but Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was disrespectful in comments made on Iran’s first day of Ramadan on Wednesday. He said it was’ not worth it ‘to look at’ initial sanctions lifting offers, saying that ‘the offers they offer are usually arrogant and degrading.’
He also warned that time may run out. “The talks should not become a conversation of exhaustion,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. ‘They should not be in such a way that parties move on and prolong the talks. It is harmful to the country. ”
He also said that Iran was prepared to return quickly to compliance if an agreement could be reached in Vienna and again denied that Iran would ever build nuclear weapons.
The leader of the Iranian delegation, Abbas Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister, has been holding bilateral talks in Vienna for the past few days and has rejected the speculation that Iran may withdraw from the negotiations. The impression among other diplomats involved is that Iran, like the United States, is bound by an agreement.
The task of the Viennese assemblies is the task of getting there and synchronizing the movements of both sides in an atmosphere of mistrust. Whether it succeeds, or how long it will take, is unclear. But both Iran and the United States have said they want a successful conclusion.