Russia Rejects ‘Artificial Deadlines’ for Finalizing Vienna Talks


Russia Rejects ‘Artificial Deadlines’ for Finalizing Vienna Talks

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Russia’s lead negotiator to the Vienna talks Mikhail Ulyanov says his country rejects “artificial deadlines” set by Western parties after their meeting with the US.

“The #JCPOA participants (without #Iran) and the US met to assess the state of affairs at the #ViennaTalks,” Ulyanov wrote in a post on Twitter on Friday.

“The Western colleagues, as they do it publicly, underlined the need to finalize negotiations ASAP. Russia shares the sense of urgency but is against artificial deadlines,” he added.

Since April of last year, Iran and the other participants in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the 2015 Iran deal, have been meeting in Vienna with the goal of reviving the deal by bringing the US into full compliance after it left the JCPOA in May 2018 under former president Donald Trump.

The negotiations in Vienna began with Trump's successor, Joe Biden, promising to rejoin the agreement and reverse the so-called "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran.

Biden, on the other hand, has thus far failed to erase Trump's undermining of Barack Obama's Iran policy, which resulted in the JCPOA in June 2015.

Iran began to reduce its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA in 2019 as a result of the US withdrawal.

Tehran maintains that it will reverse its nuclear measures once the US – the main culprit behind the failure of the JCPOA – removes its sanctions and abides by all of its contractual commitments in practice.

The Islamic Republic has also rejected the pessimistic assessment of the talks by the US and the European trio – namely France, Britain, and Germany – as a psychological ploy to win concessions.

In the course of the Vienna talks, Russia and China have supported Iran’s position while the European parties to the deal have thrown their weight behind Washington as they try to pressure Tehran into accepting terms dictated by the White House.

“China and Russia support Iran’s constructive plan, but Western countries, including the United States, have so far offered no innovative proposals in the talks,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in an interview with the CGTN published on Monday.

Amir-Abdollahian made clear that “if the parties can resume their commitments under the Iran deal, Iran will also return to commitments based on the agreement.”

He added, “If Iran can get the expected economic benefits from the agreement, so will all the parties.”

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