According to the State Department, Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani was on his way to Vienna on Wednesday for new negotiations, to “lift the cruel sanctions against our country”.
EU representative Enrique Mora is also on his way to Vienna, he writes himself on Twitter. According to AP, Robert Malley, the US special envoy for Iran, will also go to the negotiations in the Austrian capital.
In May, an EU delegation led by Enrique Mora visited Iran for talks on a way forward for the nuclear deal. Those talks were said to have gone “better than expected”, but neither they nor further talks between Iran and the US in Qatar in June led to a breakthrough.
Last week, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell presented a compromise proposal which he called on all parties to accept in order to “avoid a dangerous nuclear crisis”. Iran expressed optimism on Wednesday about the proposal, which it says will be discussed in Vienna.
The previous agreement was concluded in 2015 between the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran. This meant that Iran’s ability to enrich uranium was limited in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions against the country.
Former US President Donald Trump in 2018 tore up the agreement and re-imposed tough sanctions. After Trump’s departure, the prospects for a new agreement have brightened.