In Vienna, Iran, P4+1 agree to continue talks with more speed, seriousness

Representatives of Iran and the remaining signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have agreed to continue the next round of Vienna talks with more speed and seriousness.

High-ranking diplomats from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries – France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia – wrapped up the third round of negotiations in Vienna on Saturday, IRNA reported.

The Vienna talks focus on reviving the JCPOA by bringing the United States back into the accord and lifting all sanctions that Washington has imposed on Tehran.

The third round of the talks started on Tuesday and was resumed on Saturday to review several days of technical discussions held within three working groups created in the areas of lifting the US sanctions against Iran and the nuclear-related measures required to be taken by Tehran as bids to resuscitate the nuclear agreement.

According to Iran's Foreign Ministry, participants in the Saturday meeting agreed that the delegations would return to their respective capitals to receive instructions and resume talks on Friday.

In a tweet following the meeting, Russia's Permanent representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov talked of "indisputable progress" made at the talks.

He also said that the JCPOA Joint Commission will reconvene at the end of the next week while "experts will continue to draft elements of future agreement.

The service of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell issued a statement ahead of the Saturday talks and reiterated that the participants “will continue their discussions in view of a possible return of the United States to the JCPOA and on how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA."

Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Russia’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov, as the heads of the Iranian and Russian delegations to the Vienna talks, held a fairly detailed and long meeting.

During the meeting, the two sides coordinated their stances and underlined the need to keep their positions close to one another.

The remaining partners to the landmark nuclear deal have been engaged in negotiations since early April.

The JCPOA has been on life support since May 2018 when former US president Donald Trump left the accord and restored the economic sanctions that the accord had lifted in addition to imposing new non-nuclear ones.

Tehran responded to the noncompliance of the US with the deal through remedial nuclear measures that it is entitled to take under the JCPOA’s Paragraph 36.

After a change of the US administration, new President Joe Biden claimed that Washington was ready to rejoin the deal.

Two informed Iranian sources told Press TV on Thursday that the United States must first remove all sanctions that do not allow Iran to benefit from the nuclear deal before the Islamic Republic accepts results of the ongoing talks in Vienna.

The sources told Press TV that the Islamic Republic’s authorities would accept the outcomes of the ongoing Vienna talks only when all sanctions unilaterally imposed on the country by the US are removed and Iran verifies the removal of sanctions.

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