Russia says Vienna talks participants ‘need more time’ before starting ‘final stage of negotiations’

Russia’s permanent representative to the international organizations in Vienna says the participating states in the Vienna talks still need more time for what is supposed to be the final round of negotiations in the Austrian capital with the goal of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

“The #ViennaTalks on #JCPOA will resume as soon as all the Participating States are ready for what is supposed to be the final stage of negotiations,” Mikhail Ulyanov said in a tweet on Thursday, referring to the nuclear deal by its official acronym.

Ulyanov, who heads the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks, said some participants need more time before the beginning of the seventh round of the Vienna talks, which started early in April.

“Looks like we will meet in Vienna not earlier than next week,” he added.

The sixth round of the talks between the remaining parties to JCPOA concluded on June 20 as the negotiators returned to their capitals for further consultations.

This is the longest break the diplomats have taken since the beginning of the negotiations.

Former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA in 2018 and slapped harsh unilateral sanctions on Iran.

Russia envoy: Iran may react even tougher if US leaves JCPOA again after deal revival

Russia says Iran may react even tougher if the US makes the mistake of leaving the Iran deal again after the JCPOA revival.

Trump’s withdrawal was criticized by candidate Joe Biden, who defeated him in the November presidential election. Biden had promised to rejoin the JCPOA but the US is yet to take a concrete, verifiable step to that goal.

Throughout the Vienna talks, Iran has insisted that the US, as the first party that abandoned its contractual undertakings, should be the first party to return to its commitments by removing its illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic

Tehran has also sought assurances that the next US administration will not violate the deal again.

Reiterating the Islamic Republic’s position, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Wednesday that a guarantee by the US that it will never unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA again is crucial to a successful restoration of the deal via the Vienna format.

“Now that we are speaking about a return to the JCPOA, it is our natural right that we must be given assurances and a guarantee that such a thing (the US withdrawal) will never be repeated again,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi said.

He added that a US guarantee is an “obvious principle” underscored by Iran on numerous occasions.

US official: No guarantee next government would not leave Iran deal

The US will not give Tehran assurances that a future administration would not leave the Iran nuclear agreement again, a US official says.

However, there are Republican voices in US Congress that strongly oppose the revival of the deal and promise yet another withdrawal if they take the White House back in the 2024 presidential election.

“The only way this happens is if the Biden administration submits the Iran nuclear deal as a treaty, which it won't because they know there’s bipartisan majority opposition,” Sen. Ted Cruz said via Twitter, in response to Takht-Ravanchi’s remarks.

“Any deal that’s not a treaty won’t last, and the next admin will tear it up on day 1,” added the hawkish senator.

Since the beginning of the Vienna talks, Cruz and other Iran hawks in US Congress, including James Lankford, John Cornyn, Tim Scott, James Risch and Marco Rubio, have made moves such as the Iran Sanctions Preservation Act to maintain Trump’s “maximum pressure” against Iran, and have introduced the Iran Nuclear Treaty Act to require the US president to submit to Congress any renewed nuclear deal with Iran as a treaty.

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