The remaining parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal plan to meet on Friday afternoon in Vienna to adjourn talks on salvaging the deal, three diplomats said on Thursday.
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The indirect US-Iran talks on bringing both back into full compliance with the deal are in their seventh round. One of the diplomats said they were due to resume on Dec. 27, while another gave a time frame between Christmas and the New Year.
Under the agreement, Iran had limited its nuclear program in return for relief from US, European Union, and United Nations economic sanctions.
Then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, prompting Iran to begin violating its nuclear restrictions in 2019.
Trump's successor, Democrat Joe Biden, has sought to revive the deal via indirect talks in which officials from other parties – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, as well as the European Union – shuttle between US and Iranian diplomats because Tehran refuses to meet directly.
Britain, France, and Germany have sounded pessimistic about resuscitating the agreement, saying on Tuesday "we are rapidly reaching the end of the road" to save it as Tehran accused Western powers of engaging in a "blame game."
Iran has insisted in the Vienna talks 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. However, Biden cannot promise this because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding, not a legally binding treaty.
Dramatically upping the ante, Iran has also limited access given to UN nuclear watchdog inspectors under the nuclear deal, restricting their visits to declared nuclear sites only.
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