Delegates meeting in Vienna on Sunday, June 20, to negotiate the relaunch of the agreement reached in 2015 to regulate Iranian nuclear activities "are getting closer" to the goal, but sticking points remain.

"We are close to an agreement but we are not there yet," Enrique Mora, the EU diplomat, told reporters. 

According to him, in the next round of negotiations, "delegations will arrive from their capitals with clearer instructions, clearer ideas on how to finally reach an agreement."

Britain, China, Germany, France, Russia and Iran began European Union-sponsored meetings in April, with indirect U.S. participation, in an attempt to resuscitate the 2015 agreement. 

"Delicate balance"

Enrique Mora did not say when the talks would resume, noting that the main problem was still to find a solution "in this delicate balance" between the lifting of the US sanctions on Iran and the halt to the resumption of nuclear activities of Tehran.

According to him, the next round of talks will also give "a clearer idea" of Iran's "new political environment".

Iran's chief negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said at the end of the meeting that "some key issues remain to be resolved".

"We are near the end but, as I said before, there is still some way to go and it will not be easy," he told Iranian national television, while showing himself "full. of hope ". 

In a statement, Britain, Germany and France said it remained to "resolve the most difficult issues."

"These talks cannot be of indefinite duration (...). We urge all parties to return to Vienna and be ready to conclude an agreement," they said.

A new Iranian president

The nuclear agreement was concluded between the Islamic Republic and the so-called P5 + 1 group (China, United States, France, Great Britain, Russia and Germany) in Vienna in 2015. It offers Tehran relief from sanctions international organizations targeting it in exchange for guarantees proving that Iran is not seeking to acquire atomic weapons.

But by unilaterally denouncing this pact in May 2018, Donald Trump reinstated the American sanctions that the agreement had lifted and launched a campaign of "maximum pressure" against Iran with additional sanctions.

In response, the Islamic Republic has gradually freed itself from its obligations since 2019.

She promised to get back on track as soon as the United States of President Joe Biden - who said he wanted to reinstate the United States in the Vienna agreement - lifted these sanctions.

The ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi was proclaimed the winner on Saturday of the Iranian presidential election, and is due to succeed the moderate Hassan Rouhani in August.

Although coming from a political current characterized by anti-Americanism and rejection of the West, Ebrahim Raïssi recalled during the campaign that the priority was to obtain the lifting of sanctions to get the country out of the rut.

With AFP

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