EU Borrell says Iran nuclear talks process 'in danger'

The EU's lead negotiator in the nuclear deal talks with Iran, Josep Borrell, said today the process is "in danger" because of a recent divergence in the positions held by Washington and Tehran.

"We were converging to a closer position," said foreign affairs representative Borrell, who has been chairing indirect negotiations between Iran and the US. "But then the last interaction is not converging, [it] is diverging… If the process doesn't converge, the whole process is in danger."

"I'm sorry to say that I am less confident today… about the convergence of the negotiation process and about the prospect of closing the deal right now," Borrell said today.

He said both parties had initially issued a series of "reasonable responses" to the draft deal he submitted in late July. At the time he said the text could not be improved upon. Negotiations gained traction in August, raising hopes that the US could remove the commercial sanctions that have depressed Iranian crude exports since 2018. No headway has since been made on reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement.

Several obstacles have now been cleared including, critically, that Iran no longer demands the US delist its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "foreign terrorist organisation." But Tehran still requires guarantees over the longevity of any new JCPOA deal and safeguards against future unilateral withdrawals. The US is focused on restoring limits to Tehran's nuclear programme.

Argus estimates Iranian crude production was 2.56mn b/d in July, compared with 3.81mn b/d in the first six months of 2018, before the US withdrew from the JCPOA agreement an reimposed sanctions.

By Ruxandra Iordache