Hopes Rise for Return to Iran Nuclear Deal Destroyed by Trump
Negotiators hashing out a revived Iran nuclear deal said Monday they believe they’re close to reaching an agreement to impose limits on Tehran’s uranium enrichment, a promising development that came over four years after then-U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally abrogated the landmark accord.
An unnamed senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran told Iranian state media Monday that “relative advances were made on a number of issues” during the current round of talks in Vienna aimed at resurrecting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“We stand five minutes or five seconds from the finish line,” Russian Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov told reporters outside Vienna’s Palais Coburg on Monday, four days into the current negotiations.
Ulyanov added that “three or four issues” that are “sensitive for Iranians and Americans” await resolution, adding that he “cannot give guarantees, but the impression is that we are moving in the right direction.”
A U.S. State Department official told Reuters that the United States is ready to “quickly conclude a deal”, depending upon whether Iran’s “actions match its words.”
Lead European Union negotiator Enrique Mora said he is “absolutely” hopeful that a new deal will work out.
“We are advancing, and I expect we will close the negotiations soon,” he told Iranian state media.
One sticking point has been Trump’s designation of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, a decision U.S. President Joe Biden has said his administration will not reverse.
Since Trump abandoned the JCPOA, Tehran has been operating advanced centrifuges and rapidly stockpiling enriched uranium.
Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to limit uranium enrichment and accept inspections of its nuclear sites in return for an easing of some of the economic sanctions that critics say are killing people and crippling the country’s economy. A revived deal would allow Iran to freely export its oil and regain access to around $100 billion in frozen assets.
According to a recent Data for Progress survey, two-thirds of U.S. voters—including 82% of Democrats, 65% of Independents, and 56% of Republicans—support a new agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program. The same survey found that 83% of likely voters prefer diplomacy over war as a means of dealing with Iran over its nuclear program.
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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