EU chief Borrell 'optimistic' on upcoming Iran talks

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said today he is optimistic ahead of talks planned in the coming days between the bloc and Iran about a restart of the nuclear talks.

"I am more optimistic today than yesterday," Borrell said. "Things are getting better. And I hope that we will have preparatory meetings in Brussels in the days to come."

Iranian parliament member Behroz Mohebbi said yesterday that the Brussels talks are scheduled for 21 October, but Borrell said there had been no confirmation of such a meeting yet.

The planned talks come on the back of a meeting in Tehran last week between EU deputy foreign affairs secretary Enrique Mora and Iran's recently-appointed deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri-Kani. Mora had travelled to the Iranian capital in an effort to secure a commitment to restart the stalled talks with the US over a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But he succeeded only in securing a commitment from the Iranian government to meet again, this time in the Belgian capital, to discuss further a return to the negotiating table.

The JCPOA talks were suspended in late June after the election of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi. Negotiators from the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and the US have for months been urging Iran to return to the negotiations, which are aimed at bringing Iran and the US back into compliance with their commitments under the deal. Iran in 2019 began gradually ramping up its nuclear activities beyond the limits allowed under the JCPOA, in response to then US president Donald Trump's May 2018 decision to pull the US out and reimpose sanctions on Tehran's economy.

"That Iran continues with the [JCPOA] talks is definite, in line with the statements of the president and foreign minister," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said today. Iran has said the delay was down to an internal review of previous negotiating rounds that were carried out under the previous administration. Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said last week that this review would be concluded "in the near future."

Tehran has been seeking guarantees from the US that a future president would not walk away from any resurrected agreement in the way that Trump did — a request that US officials have said is unrealistic. Amir-Abdollahian has also said Tehran is looking for ways to verify the implementation of the JCPOA partners' commitments, particularly when it comes to lifting the sanctions that at one point removed nearly 2mn b/d of Iran's crude and condensate from the market.

Argus estimates that Iran's crude output was 2.47mn b/d in September, up from 1.97mn b/d in the final quarter of 2020 but still significantly down on the 3.81mn b/d it produced on average in the first quarter of 2018, before the US reneged on the JCPOA.

Khatibzadeh today reiterated that Tehran's main goal in these talks is to secure the removal of all sanctions on Iran.

"This can only be achieved through pragmatic dialogue," Khatibzadeh said. "What is important is that when the dialogue begins, it is not wasted."

By Nader Itayim