Major powers and Iran have yet to get down to business at talks on rescuing the 2015 nuclear deal, which will very soon become "an empty shell" without progress, senior British, French, and German diplomats said on Monday.
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"As of this moment, we still have not been able to get down to real negotiations," the diplomats from the so-called E3 said in a statement about the Vienna nuclear negotiations in which they are shuttling between US and Iranian officials.
"Time is running out. Without swift progress, in light of Iran's fast-forwarding of its nuclear program, the JCPOA will very soon become an empty shell," they added, referring to the deal, whose full name is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The statement offered a pessimistic assessment of efforts to revive the deal under which Iran had limited its nuclear program in return for relief from the US, European Union, and UN economic sanctions.
Then-US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, prompting Iran to begin violating its nuclear restrictions in 2019.
The European diplomats' warning followed a statement by State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter, who said Monday that it was "too soon to say" whether Iran has returned to nuclear talks with a more constructive approach.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said over the weekend that good progress had been made in nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna that could quickly pave the way for serious negotiations.
The stalled negotiations have prompted the Islamic republic to accuse Western powers of "persisting in their blame game."
In a pessimistic assessment of the nuclear talks in Vienna, diplomats from Britain, France and Germany warned on Monday that "time is running out" to rescue the pact, which they said would very soon become "an empty shell" without progress in negotiations.
Kani tweeted in response that "Some actors persist in their blame game habit, instead of real diplomacy. We proposed our ideas early, and worked constructively and flexibly to narrow gaps."
Referring to the United States and its withdrawal from the nuclear pact in 2018, Kani wrote: "Diplomacy is a two-way street. If there's a real will to remedy the culprit's wrongdoing, the way for a quick, good deal will be paved."
However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that Washington continues to pursue diplomacy with Iran because "it remains, at this moment, the best option", but added that it was "actively engaging with allies and partners on alternatives."
Indirect talks between arch-foes Iran and the United States started in April but stopped in June after the election of hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, whose negotiating team has returned to Vienna after five months with an uncompromising stance.
The stakes in the Vienna talks are high. Failure in the negotiations would carry the risk of a new regional war, with Israel pushing for a tough policy if diplomacy fails to rein in Iran's nuclear work.
Israel's position is that Iran cannot be allowed to become a nuclear threshold state – a stance based on the Islamic republic's repeated threats to annihilate the Jewish state.
Iran maintains that its nuclear pursuits are peaceful – an assertion the West does not share, with concerns over the true state of Tehran's nuclear program growing since the International Atomic Energy Agency admitted it no longer has sufficient access to Iran's nuclear facilities.
During the seventh round of talks, which began on Nov. 29, Iran abandoned any compromises it had made in the previous six, and demanded more, a senior US official has said.
With significant gaps remaining between Iran and the United States on key issues, such as the speed and scope of lifting sanctions and how and when Iran will reverse its nuclear steps, chances of an agreement seem remote.
Iran insists on the immediate removal of all sanctions in a verifiable process. Washington has said it would remove curbs "inconsistent" with the nuclear pact if Iran resumed compliance, implying it would leave in place others such as those imposed under terrorism or human rights measures.
Iran also seeks guarantees that "no US administration" will renege on the pact again. But Biden cannot promise this because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding, not a legally binding treaty.
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