The Iranian Foreign Minister Dschawad Zarif was actually planning to visit Vienna over the weekend.

The focus of the talks with the Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg was, as the Viennese newspaper Die Presse read in advance, on the nuclear negotiations.

Austria itself is not involved in these, but acts as a host.

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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    But the visit never came.

    Zarif canceled at the last moment, for a reason that has nothing to do with the nuclear talks for the time being.

    As a sign of solidarity with Israel, which is under rocket fire, the Austrian government has hoisted its own red, white and red flag over the Federal Chancellery on Ballhausplatz in Vienna and the nearby Foreign Ministry.

    The Iranians took this as an affront.

    Constructive course of the talks?

    The discussions themselves have become quite quiet in the past few days. That could be a sign of a constructive course, because if the negotiations had stalled, it would have leaked out. The framework conditions are still complicated and time-consuming: the negotiators from Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany sit on one side of the table in a hotel in Vienna, those from Iran on the other. The delegation of the United States, the real adversary of the Iranians, is kept in separate rooms.

    Above all, the three Western European delegations, the "E3", act as mediators. The point is to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which limited and controlled the Iranian nuclear program and lifted sanctions against the country. The United States under former President Donald Trump unilaterally "opted out" of the agreement in 2018; thereafter Iran also violated several conditions.

    The decisive round of negotiations has been going on since May 7: the deal must be concluded by the end of next week, according to several Western delegations. Because then the hot phase of the election campaign begins in Iran, which threatens to rob the Iranian negotiators of their already limited leeway. And a provisional agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran for intensive control of the nuclear program ends. In the meantime, according to reports, they are in the process of negotiating the "sticking points". These are questions like what will become of the modern uranium centrifuges that Iran has put into operation contrary to the restrictions of the 2015 agreement.

    Is the cancellation of the Zarif visit to be seen as an unfavorable sign? The Iranian head of the delegation, Abbas Araghji, was indignant on Twitter: Vienna, the seat of the IAEA and the United Nations, “has been a great host for negotiations so far,” wrote Araghdi. It is "shocking and painful" to see the Israeli flag over government offices, an "occupation regime" that has killed innocent civilians.

    Foreign Minister Schallenberg replied that Austria did not make its “solidarity with Israel and corresponding visible expressions” dependent on the visit programs of other countries. He tried to counter the impression of an influence on the talks: “It is crucial for us that the negotiations to rescue the Vienna nuclear agreement continue unabated and under high pressure. Because time is of the essence, everyone is aware of that. ”Even among the European delegations, there are no worries that the cancellation of Zarif's bilateral visit will have a negative impact on the talks.