Agreement on JCPOA Could Be Reached as Soon as Next Week: Russian Diplomat
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said that the final agreement on the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and removal of anti-Iran sanctions may be reached as early as next week.
"In the event of favorable development of events the final agreement may be reached as early as next week," he said when asked a respective question. "However, it is possible if all countries participating in the Vienna talks agree with the version of the text provided by EU coordinators on August 8. If amendments, objections appear it is difficult to project further developments now. We have to wait for the beginning of next week," Ulyanov said in an interview with TASS in Vienna.
The EU coordinators have made several amendments to the text that is on the table now, Ulyanov added.
"This is not an EU text, but the one developed by all participants of the talks that have been underway since last April. As coordinators the EU’s representatives may offer compromise options, which they did. Indeed, the US has apparently agreed, whereas Iran has not yet defined its position on the text, which is why I will not speculate on what issues Teheran may still have," he claimed.
Negotiations have been held between Iran and the P4+1 group of countries – Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China – in the Austrian capital of Vienna since April last year to restore the JCPOA, which was ditched by former US president Donald Trump in May 2018.
In quitting the agreement, Trump unleashed what he called the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. Washington also reinstalled unilateral sanctions against Tehran, which had been lifted under the JCPOA. Tehran maintains that the policy has failed dismally.
Iran has cited Washington’s indecisiveness as the reason behind the protraction of the talks, as a number of key issues remain unresolved, ranging from the removal of all post-JCPOA sanctions to the provision of guarantees by the American side that it will not leave the deal again.
The negotiations between Iran and the Europeans plus Russia and China to revive the 2015 nuclear deal through removing US sanctions on Tehran have dragged on since April 2021. While the Biden administration has claimed to be ready to return to compliance with the deal which its predecessor abandoned in 2018, it has taken no practical measures to undo Washington's past wrongs.
Last week on Monday, an Iranian foreign ministry official dismissed US media reports that a text for restoring the deal with Iran had been completed and that negotiations in Vienna were finished.
Iranian officials have said they had already conveyed an initial response to the draft and would come back with additional views at a later point.
The Nournews website, which is affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said the Islamic Republic has clearly announced from the beginning that it will not sign a text until it is sure of an agreement on all the discussed issues that will fully secure the interests of the Iranian nation.
