In Vienna, JCPOA Joint Commission agrees to speed up process of talks

Representatives of Iran and the signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have agreed to accelerate the process of the talks on the revival of the agreement.

Senior diplomats from Iran and the P4+1 wrapped up the first session of a new round of talks within the framework of the JCPOA Joint Commission in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Tuesday.

The negotiators agreed that expert groups would continue their work in two areas of lifting the US sanctions against Iran and the nuclear-related measures required to be taken by Tehran in an “intensive and fast” way.

It was also decided to set up a third expert group to examine practical arrangements needed to implement the process of sanctions removal and then the return of the United States to the JCPOA.

Iran and the P4+1 group of countries have been involved in the diplomatic process in Vienna since April 6 to save the JCPOA. The nuclear deal has survived almost three years of unilateral US sanctions on Iran, which in turn prompted Tehran to reduce its own commitments in a legal move under the accord.

The US, which withdrew from the deal in 2018, is also in talks with the JCPOA participants, except for Iran. The talks have so far failed to lead to concrete results as the US insists on pushing its own narrative with regard to several issues – including which sanctions need to be removed – into the talks.

The US is also pressing for a step-for-step removal of the sanctions, which has been rejected categorically by Tehran.

Two working groups set to draft solutions: Araqchi

Speaking after the meeting, Iran’s chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi said the two working groups would start drafting solutions to the dispute, including coming up with the lists of a list of measures that need to be taken by Iran and the sanctions that have to be removed by the US.

He added that the third working group should still focus its efforts on macro issues, including Iran’s verification of the US sanctions removal.

“We are on the right path but there are still challenges and difficult details. It is necessary for us to be able to agree on every word and phrase of them,” said Araqchi, who is the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs.

He added that the working groups will start their work today, and that the JCPOA Joint Commission would convene when it is necessary to examine the performance of the working groups or settle possible problems.

“We have still bigger difficult challenges on which we did not reach a solution and all the delegations are trying to find a solution to these challenges,” he said.

Following the end of the new round of the Vienna talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said in a post on his Twitter account that the participants have consensus on the full restoration of the JCPOA in its original form and decided to expedite the process.

The top Russian negotiator added that the session of the JCPOA Joint Commission proved that the “participants are guided by the unity of purpose which is full restoration of the nuclear deal in its original form.”

On behalf of the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, the session was chaired by Deputy Secretary-General and Political Director of European External Action Service Enrique Mora.

Mora wrote on Twitter that the participants in the JCPOA Joint Commission aim to “advance on our objectives: US rejoining the JCPOA and full implementation of the deal.”

Ahead of the Tuesday meeting, heads of the Iranian, Russian and Chinese delegations to the Vienna talks held a trilateral meeting, during which they once again emphasized that the United States must terminate the sanctions it has imposed on the Islamic Republic all at once as a necessary precondition for Washington’s return to the JCPOA.

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