Vienna talks, round eight, to resume after New Year recess

Negotiators representing Iran and the P4+1 group of nations have returned to their countries for a New Year break. They began their eighth round of talks this year on Monday. They will return to the Austrian capital on January the third.

On Thursday, as delegations were preparing to leave Vienna, Iran's chief negotiator to the talks, Saeed Bagheri Kani, said good progress had been made regarding sanctions removal during negotiations with theP4+1 group of nations over the past days.

He said the eighth round of the negotiations mainly focused on that issue. Iran's top negotiator also expressed hope that after a few days of recess, more serious work would be pursued on the issue of sanctions removal.

The Islamic Republic has emphasized that if the other parties continue the negotiations in good faith, an agreement is within reach.

Senior diplomats from Iran China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany are trying to find a way to remove sanctions against the Islamic Republic and allow the United States to return to the 2015 agreement.

Vienna talks

Russia

Tehran insists that the US, which unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018, must remove sanctions in a verifiable manner and provide credible guarantees that it will not violate its commitments again.

Iran insists that the lifting of sanctions in a verifiable manner and guarantees are two issues that have to be addressed during the talks.

Because the United States in 2015 did not abide by its key commitments, The United States was supposed to normalize Iranian trade.

And the same is true with the Europeans; they were supposed to facilitate the normalization of Iranian business and trade across the globe but they did the exact opposite.

Dr Mohammad Marandi, Tehran University, Professor

Iran's top negotiator: Good progress made in Vienna talks on sanctions removal, verification

Iran’s top negotiator says good progress has been made in Vienna talks with regard to the removal of sanctions and subsequent verification of sanctions removal.

The United States unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 agreement has definitely taught Iranians a lesson.

All parties in Vienna have stressed that they will do their utmost to expedite the negotiation process.

Tehran says that it seeks a definitive result through the ongoing talks, emphasizing that the Vienna negotiations must end in the removal of sanctions.

 When will that happen? Russia's ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, believes that an agreement could be reached before the end of February 2022.

Mikhail Ulyanov explained that nobody can accurately say when an agreement will emerge but that the fact that steady progress is being made is of great import.

Speculation is rife as to when an agreement will finally emerge, reminiscent of the weeks and months before the original deal was announced in mid July 2015.

Russia: US, Iran’s partners in 2015 deal satisfied with ‘positive trends’ in Vienna

A senior Russian diplomat says the participants in a meeting in Vienna between the US and Iran’s five partners in the 2015 deal have voiced satisfaction with the “positive trends” in the ongoing discussions.

The negotiators of Iran and the P4+1 now have to go through a similarly exhausting process, all because of the American unilateral withdrawal.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has acknowledged that the pullout was a grave mistake. It has also expressed interest in returning to the agreement.

Yet it is still enforcing the sanctions that were imposed by former President Donald Trump and has refused to lift any of them as a goodwill gesture.

'Joe Biden has history of hawkish foreign policy': Commentator

Political commentator John Steppling says the US president-elect has a history of hawkish foreign policies including supporting coups.

Biden is not a person who shows goodwill, he is, as expected, pursuing Trump's policy of maximum pressure; he is strangling ordinary people as much as possible.

These are crimes against humanity. But for Biden, that's fine.

Dr Mohammad Marandi, Tehran University

Iran has definitely no illusions about unending American hostility, no matter who may be residing in the White House.

Observers believe Iran has every right to push for verifiable removal of sanctions and credible guarantees from the US.

Biden will have to re-commit to the JCPOA

The current, outgoing, US administration has ignored its commitment to international law but with a new US president waiting in the wings, to take over from outgoing President Trump, the country may return to honoring deals it’s made.

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