EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said Iran and world powers were “very close” to reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, which would halt Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement, causing Tehran to begin violating its nuclear obligations nearly a year later. The negotiations in Vienna, the capital of Austria, for the revival of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), were interrupted at the beginning of March due to the new demands of Russia, which occupied Ukraine.
Russia later claimed that it had received written guarantees that it could continue to work as a party to the agreement.
“We are now very close to an agreement and I hope it will be possible,” Borrell said at the Doha Forum, an international conference held in Qatar.
Enrique Mora, the European Union’s Political Director for Nuclear Negotiations, announced that he would go to Tehran today to meet with Iran’s chief negotiator.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Emir Abdullahiyan also said last week that a nuclear deal could be reached in the near term if the United States is pragmatic. But US officials are more cautious in assessing efforts to revive the deal.
However, there are several difficult issues before the agreement. Iran wants the Revolutionary Guards removed from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Abdullahiyan said in a statement today that the lifting of the US sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards is among Iran’s most important demands in the talks.
“The issue of lifting sanctions against the guards is definitely part of the talks,” Abdullahiyan told state television, stressing that Iran would not cross its “red lines”.
Tehran also demands assurances that the United States will not unilaterally withdraw from any deal. The extent to which the sanctions will be withdrawn is another sensitive issue.
Failed efforts to re-enforce the deal could risk a regional war or lead to tougher Western sanctions on Iran and continued upward pressure on world oil prices, already high due to the Ukraine conflict, experts say.