The Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the Vienna talks on Tehran's nuclear file have made progress despite their slow pace and the existence of pending differences, while an American news website quoted European diplomatic sources that the large gaps between America and Iran regarding the necessary measures to limit the Iranian nuclear program halted the progress of the talks.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said - in an interview with NBC News - that the atmosphere of the Vienna talks is constructive, but he called on America to "realize that these talks are not a new round of bargaining." “We finished that in July 2015 (referring to the nuclear deal), we are in Vienna to decide how the United States can return to full compliance with the 2015 agreement.
The parties to the nuclear agreement concluded a meeting in the Austrian capital last Saturday at the level of assistant foreign ministers, by agreeing to hold a new meeting tomorrow, Friday, amid Russian and Iranian optimism that the talks would proceed in the right direction.
Centrifuges
The American website Axios quoted a European diplomatic source as saying that one of the main disagreements in the Vienna talks is the fate of the new and advanced centrifuges, which would allow Tehran to enrich uranium more quickly.
The site added in a report on Wednesday that Americans and Europeans agree that the time required to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb, must be at least a year.
Axios indicated - according to the same source - that any new agreement should determine whether Iran can continue to use the new centrifuges, or whether there is a need to remove them from the country, or stop working with them and storing them in Iran.
Tough negotiations
The European Union's foreign policy commissioner, Josep Borrell, said that the Vienna negotiations to revive the nuclear deal with Iran are difficult, but are moving forward.
Last Monday, Tehran said that two drafts had been reached in Vienna's indirect negotiations with the United States on reviving the nuclear deal, while Washington said that there is still a long way to go to return to the nuclear agreement concluded between Tehran and the major powers in 2015.
Tehran said that an understanding could have been reached a month ago if Washington were ready to lift all sanctions in a practical way, explaining that the Vienna understandings were based on accepting the lifting of sanctions.