BRUSSELS – Talks in Vienna aimed at boosting the nuclear deal that the Trump administration is leaving in 2018 and which Tehran is set to break a year later have progressed somewhat this week: they have not broken.
Senior diplomats involved in the talks agreed on Friday that the initial steps in two working groups designed to bring the United States and Iran back into line with the agreement are positive and will continue next week.
Although there are no direct talks between Iran and the United States, the other signatories to the agreement – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, chaired by the European Union – are engaged in a kind of shuttle diplomacy between them.
One working group focuses on how to lift the harsh economic sanctions imposed by the United States that are contrary to the provisions of the Nuclear Power Agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The other working group focuses on how Iran can return to the limits of enriched uranium and the centrifuges to manufacture them under the terms of the agreement.
A senior State Department official told reporters Friday night that not all of the sanctions imposed on Iran during the Trump administration would be lifted – deliberately raising the possibility of economic fines imposed on the Central Bank or any terrorist activities. directed, remain in force.
But Biden’s government is struggling to unravel the web of sanctions imposed by Mr. Trump is set to unleash what, according to the official, tried to obscure which fines are related to the nuclear deal and which are not. If Iran continues to insist that all sanctions be lifted, the official warned, the negotiations are heading for a stalemate.
Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian representative for the talks in Vienna, said in A Twitter message after Friday’s meeting that “participants made an inventory of the work that experts have done over the past three days, and noted with satisfaction the initial progress.” The senior diplomats meeting in the so-called Joint Commission – which represents all signatories except the United States – will meet again next week “to maintain the positive momentum,” he said. Ulyanov said.
The Iranian representative, Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister, said the joint commission would meet again on Wednesday. In the meeting, he stressed Iran’s commitment to the talks and that “it depends on the political will and seriousness of the other parties, otherwise there will be no reason to continue the negotiations,” according to comments posted. on Twitter by Iranian journalist Abas Aslani.
Mr. Araghchi told Iran’s Press TV on Thursday that he sees hopeful signs from Washington about easing sanctions, but that “I think we have a longer way ahead, even though we are moving forward and the atmosphere is constructive.”
But a spokesman for Iran’s nuclear energy organization said this week that Iran has now produced 55 kilograms of uranium, which has been enriched to 20 percent, and could reach 120 kilograms within another eight months. In mid-February, the amount was about 17.6 kilograms, which is an indication of why the other powers want to move quickly to limit Iran again to the limits required in the agreement. Iran also uses advanced centrifuges and makes uranium metal, both of which are banned under the agreement.
U.S. officials worked to reduce expectations for a quick breakthrough and encouraged patience. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was prepared to lift all reinstated sanctions and new ones imposed by President Donald Trump after May 2018, which is “contrary” to the nuclear deal.
Some of the sanctions imposed by Trump are under terrorism and human rights law and are not specifically nuclear-related, and it is possible that Washington will try to retain some of them. Tough sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran, for example, imposed in September 2019, are under terrorism legislation. But analysts believe Iran will not accept the imposition of the sanction.
In what is seen as a gesture of goodwill, Iran on Friday released a South Korean oil tanker that has been detained since January in a multi-billion dollar dispute seized by Seoul in response to the punishment of US sanctions.
Iran has accused the ship, the MT Hankuk Chemi, of polluting the waters in the Strait of Hormuz, but the seizure is widely seen as an attempt to put pressure on Seoul to put billions of dollars into Iranian assets held in South Korea banks bound, to release. response to US sanctions against Iran.
The European Union said in a statement after Friday’s meeting that “participants have taken stock of the discussions that have taken place at various levels since the last joint commission with a view to a possible return of the US” to the nuclear power agreement and ‘discuss modalities to return to its full and effective implementation. ”
The commission ‘was briefed on the work of the two expert groups on the lifting of sanctions and key implementation measures, and participants noted the constructive and results-oriented exchange.’
Lara Jakes contributed reports from Washington.