Diplomats engaged in the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna have completed this week's negotiations and will resume work on Monday, according to reports, despite warnings that the parties only had weeks, not months, to salvage the deal.
On Thursday morning, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani, once again met with High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union Enrique Mora.
This is the eight round of nuclear talks between countries that signed the original agreement in 2015 – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, and Germany together with the European Union.
Meanwhile, top US and Russian officials involved in the nuclear negotiations met in Vienna, a Russian envoy said on Wednesday, and delegates on both sides said Moscow and Washington were coordinating in a bid to salvage the 2015 agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
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Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's envoy to talks on the nuclear pact, wrote on Twitter that he had met twice on Wednesday with the US special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, posting pictures of himself and the US diplomat.
"Close consultations and coordination between the Russian and the US delegations in the course of the Vienna talks constitute an important prerequisite for progress towards the restoration of the JCPOA," Ulyanov wrote.
The State Department, when asked about the meeting, refrained from discussing details of the diplomatic conversation.
After what he said was his second meeting with Malley, Ulyanov tweeted, "We maintain intensive and, I believe, useful dialogue in the course of the Vienna talks on concrete way and means of restoration of the JCPOA."
For the second time today I met this evening with the #US Special Envoy for #Iran Mr.Robert Malley.We maintain intensive and, I believe, useful dialogue in the course of the #ViennaTalks on concrete way and means of restoration of the #JCPOA. pic.twitter.com/sNbWUnvktO
— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) December 29, 2021
Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call with his French, German and British counterparts and Iran nuclear talks were among the topics discussed, according to a statement by the State Department.
"The Secretary and his counterparts also discussed their shared concerns about the pace of developments in Iran's nuclear program as time runs short for Tehran to return to the JCPOA," Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement about the call.
The 2015 deal lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its atomic activities but in 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement. Iran later breached many of the JCPOA's nuclear restrictions and kept pushing well beyond them.
The latest round of indirect talks between Iran and the United States resumed on Monday in the Austrian capital, with Tehran focused on getting US sanctions lifted again, despite scant progress on reining in its atomic activities.
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin were likely to discuss the Iran nuclear talks on Thursday – when they are due to have a virtual meeting – a senior Biden administration official said.
"I do believe that they [Biden and Putin] are likely to discuss it [Iran] again tomorrow given that we have ongoing talks in Vienna now and the US, our European partners, and the Russians have been coordinating quite closely in Vienna, working quite constructively together in Vienna," the official said.
Iran refuses to meet US officials directly, with other parties to the deal – Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, and the European Union – having to shuttle between the two sides.
On Thursday, Washington expressed caution over upbeat comments by Iran and Russia about the talks in Vienna, saying it was too soon to say whether Tehran had returned to the negotiating table with a constructive approach.
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