Iranian nuclear: "disappointed", Europeans are worried about the turn of the negotiations

The EU's special envoy in charge of the Iranian nuclear dossier, Enrique Mora, speaks to the press in June 2021 in Vienna.

AP - Lisa Leutner

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The Europeans expressed this Friday, December 3 their "

 disappointment and concern 

" a few days after the resumption in Vienna of negotiations on Iranian nuclear power, according to senior diplomats from France, Germany and the United Kingdom (E3).

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Tehran is going back on almost all of the compromises which had been difficult to find

 " during the first round of negotiations between April and June, declared the French, German and British negotiators, quoted by AFP. Delegations return this weekend to their respective capitals and talks will resume in the middle of next week " 

to see if these differences can be overcome or not,

 " they added. But "it

 is not clear how such a gap can be closed within a realistic timeframe on the basis of the Iranian project

 ."

Despite these harsh comments, European diplomats say they are " 

fully engaged in the search for a diplomatic solution 

". "

Time is running out 

," they insist.

This Thursday, December 2, Iran's chief negotiator on the nuclear issue, Ali Bagheri, said he had made two proposals to try to save the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, as part of the talks which resumed on Monday 29 November in Vienna after a five-month hiatus.

He added in

an interview with Al Jazeera

that Iran would make a third proposal once the first two were accepted, specifying that they had no reason to be rejected since they are, according to him, " 

based on on what was provided for in the 2015 agreement 

”. 

Raïssi's rise to power changed the game

Concluded in 2015 between the Islamic Republic and six great powers (United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, United Kingdom), the Iran nuclear agreement broke up following the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 and the reinstatement of sanctions.

In response, Tehran has freed itself from most of its commitments.

The Vienna negotiations aim to bring Washington back into the fold, which participates in the discussions indirectly.

The various parties parted in June with the hope of an imminent conclusion, but the coming to power in Iran of the

ultra-conservative president Ebrahim Raïssi

was a game-

changer

.

This pact, known by its English acronym JCPOA, offered Tehran the lifting of part of the sanctions stifling its economy in exchange for a drastic reduction in its nuclear program, placed under strict UN control.

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