It is expected that Enrique Mora, the European coordinator for nuclear talks, will arrive in the Iranian capital to meet with the chief Iranian negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and a number of other Tehran officials in the Foreign Ministry and others, in order to push for the revival of the Iranian nuclear agreement.

Mora's visit comes after indirect talks between the United States and Iran reached a dead end over the Iranian nuclear file, due to Tehran's insistence on removing its Revolutionary Guard from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Commenting on the visit of the European envoy, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that experts from the Iranian and European sides will follow up in Tehran the previous talks, stressing that the nuclear negotiations are proceeding on their normal course and that this path is continuing, as he put it.

To understand the mission of the European envoy to Tehran, Al Jazeera Net asked 6 questions to experts and researchers in Iranian institutes for studies, to monitor the harvest of the nuclear negotiations stalled since last March 11 and the efforts of the European Troika in its last chance to save the nuclear agreement.

European Coordinator for Nuclear Talks Enrique Mora (L) visits Tehran today (Getty)

What Iranian demands were achieved in the nuclear negotiations that resumed last November?

What are the thorny issues that hindered the revival of the nuclear agreement in Vienna?

Abbas Aslani, a researcher at the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies, summarized his country's demands in two axes.

Lifting all US sanctions and economic benefit, especially selling oil and receiving its revenues, adding that former US President Donald Trump imposed various sanctions on various Iranian sectors and entities after his unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in 2018, which constituted the biggest contentious issue that complicated the negotiations, and is still threatening to blow it up permanently. .

In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Aslani revealed that many controversial issues, especially technical and economic files, have been resolved so far, while some Iranian demands have eluded a solution, including verifying the practical lifting of US sanctions and obtaining guarantees that the United States will not withdraw from the agreement again. The Revolutionary Guards were removed from the US terrorist list.

However, he added that with the exception of the Revolutionary Guards file - which is the main node in the negotiating track - there are positive developments on other contentious issues, and added that the US side, on the other hand, demanded to discuss some files, such as the Iranian military program and Tehran's policies in the region, which the latter rejected altogether. and detailed.


What is Mora's mission and the initiative he has in his pocket for Tehran?

The researcher at the "Middle East Center for Strategic Studies" Abbas Aslani confirmed that Mora has an initiative to reach a compromise solution that satisfies the Iranian and American sides regarding removing the Revolutionary Guards from the US terrorism list, stressing that no one knows the details of the initiative that the European envoy to Tehran brought.

And the European Union's foreign policy coordinator, Josep Borrell, said - in a statement to the British Financial Times - that the European Union is making last-chance efforts to save the nuclear agreement with Iran.

Borrell made it clear that his proposal is based on a compromise whereby the Revolutionary Guards will be removed from the American blacklist, provided that the Quds Force (affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards) remains on this list.

Aslani considered that Mora's chances are high in moving the stagnant waters and returning negotiations to the track of direct meetings between Iran and the 1 + 4 group in Vienna, after it has communicated through mediators since last March, stressing that Tehran cannot abandon its demand to remove the Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorism. Given his prominent role in the economy as well as his defense mission, this is what complicates Mora's mission.

The Iranian researcher concluded by saying that his country fears the upcoming US steps to restrict its commercial dealings under the pretext of Washington's designation of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity.

What are the chances of reaching an agreement based on the principle of "winner-win" similar to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action concluded in 2015 between Iran and the Six-Party Group?

The Iranian researcher on American affairs, Amir Ali Abul-Fath, believes that his country is no longer what it was in 2015 and that the Western side cannot be a winner with distinction in any possible agreement on the Iranian nuclear file.

Abu Al-Fateh added, in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, that the Zionist-American axis has become forced to choose between "the bad" and "the worst," as he put it, explaining that meeting Tehran's demands and reviving the nuclear agreement will turn Iran into an economic and political ability, and this is what constitutes a bad choice for Washington, Because it will increase Tehran's ability and influence in the region.

He explained that, according to Western allegations regarding Iran's proximity to the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, the withdrawal of Western parties from the negotiations aimed at reviving the nuclear agreement would be the worst option for the United States and its allies, adding that his country's nuclear program is peaceful and that the fatwa of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei forbids production and possession nuclear weapon.

Negotiations related to the nuclear file were punctuated by several obstacles and conditions (Reuters)

What is the biggest challenge that would torpedo the Vienna negotiations permanently?

Abu Al-Fateh sees the Republican victory in the midterm elections scheduled for next November as a major challenge that would torpedo the nuclear agreement and the ongoing negotiations to revive it for nearly a year. He also spoke of Iranian concerns about the steadfastness of the potential agreement.

Last Wednesday, the US Senate approved, by 62 votes to 33, a non-binding resolution calling on the administration of President Joe Biden not to agree to a nuclear agreement with Tehran unless the Iranians accept some strict conditions, especially preventing exports. Oil to China, curbing of its ballistic missile program, and continued sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards.

The US Senate also approved Republican Senator Ted Cruz's proposal to impose terrorism-related sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran by 86 votes to 12 against.

Does Iran see a connection between the recent European mission to save the nuclear agreement and Western efforts in general to find an alternative to Russian energy?

The Russian war on Ukraine played a contradictory role in the nuclear negotiations, according to economic researcher Gholam Reza Moghadam, who sees prolonging the war as an incentive for the Western side to reach an agreement with Tehran on its nuclear program, after the Russian demands were to stop the Vienna negotiations.

Reda Moghadam explained - to Al Jazeera Net - that the Europeans consider the Russian decision not to sell gas to Western countries except in the local currency (the ruble) as a "provocation", stressing that Moscow's implementation of its threats to cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria urged the western side to move the waters of the nuclear negotiations, to form energy Iran, along with some Gulf countries, is an alternative to Russian gas.

Moghadam concluded that the Western side's need for the energy of the Middle East makes Iran not in a hurry to revive the nuclear agreement.