The United States confirmed the holding of a sixth round of indirect negotiations with Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement, and said that it is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about what the talks will lead to, while a European official confirmed that a draft agreement had been reached.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said today, Thursday, that there will be a sixth round of negotiations that started in early April.
Price added that Washington expects a sixth round of indirect talks with Iran, and expects the negotiations to extend to other subsequent rounds.
He pointed out that there are still obstacles despite holding 5 rounds of negotiations in the Austrian capital.
The White House had previously said that an agreement with Iran that prevents it from acquiring a nuclear weapon would be in the interest of the United States, stressing that it would provide Israeli officials with the latest developments in nuclear talks with Tehran.
With the end of the fifth round on Wednesday evening, and the return of delegations to hold consultations in their countries, Abbas Araqchi, chief negotiator and assistant foreign minister of Iran, said that there will be a sixth round, which may be the last.
Draft agreement in Vienna
And earlier, Enrique Mora, the deputy foreign policy official in the European Union, revealed the existence of a draft agreement that is being worked on in the Vienna negotiations on reviving the Iranian nuclear agreement.
Mora added that the draft presents several options that must be resolved.
While the agreement is expected to be formally signed next week, Reuters quoted senior diplomats as saying that "the most difficult decisions have yet to be taken."
It is expected that negotiations will resume in Vienna next week in conjunction with the meetings of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will be held from 7 to 11 of this month.
In the past few weeks, it was reported that a draft agreement had begun to be drafted, but subsequent statements from participants in the talks indicated that there were major issues still in dispute.
tough decisions
In statements carried by the Iranian news agency, Iran's chief negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, said Thursday that it is time for the United States and the Europeans to make their difficult decisions.
Araqchi added that although good progress has been made in the course of negotiations, there are still major issues that must be agreed upon.
The Iranian official added, "As I said before, I expected that we still did not reach a final conclusion of the consensus. There is a distance that separates us, but of course we are not far."
On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the main outstanding issues with Washington had been resolved during the ongoing negotiations in Vienna.
He also said that US President Joe Biden realized that dialogue is the best way to deal with Tehran.
Although the United States withdrew in 2018 from the nuclear agreement by a decision of former President Donald Trump, and is no longer officially a party to the 5 + 1 group, it is a major party in the current talks in which the other signatories to the agreement are also participating.
Iran stresses the need to lift sanctions against it, and its chief negotiator confirmed a month ago that sanctions will be lifted on key Iranian sectors, including oil and banks. In return, Washington stresses that Tehran will return to full and verifiable compliance with the terms of the 2015 agreement.