Iran sending delegation to Vienna for nuclear talks

Iran's nuclear negotiating team is heading to Vienna this evening to participate in a new round of talks aimed at salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said today, 3 August.

A return to the agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would also see the lifting of US sanctions on Tehran that were reimposed after then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in mid-2018.

"Within the framework of our policy to lift the cruel sanctions against our country, the negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Iran, headed by [Iran's chief negotiator] Ali Bagheri-Kani, will leave for Vienna in the next few hours," Nasser Kanani said.

The US also confirmed today that state department Iran envoy Rob Malley is heading to Vienna.

Kanani said the next round of discussions between Iran and the US, which will begin on 4 August, will again be indirect and be carried out with EU mediation. EU deputy foreign affairs secretary Enrique Mora, who has acted as an intermediary between the two sides in many previous rounds, said on 2 August that he too was Vienna-bound.

This new round of talks will be the first since Iranian and US negotiators met in the Qatari capital Doha in late June for two days of negotiations aimed at breaking the then three-month stalemate. But those talks ultimately failed to address any of the remaining points of contention, leaving prospects for a return to the deal slim.

Iran's objections have largely centered on the scope of sanctions relief it will get under the proposed revived agreement, while the US says Iran is putting forward demands beyond the scope of the JCPOA talks.

Bilateral consultations have been ongoing between the EU and the two sides since the Doha talks, with the EU's foreign affairs representative last month putting forward a new draft text seeking to incorporate and address both sides' concerns as comprehensively as possible.

Borrell described that draft as "the best possible deal under the given circumstances," and urged all sides to return to the talks and carry them over the finishing line. "Time to decide is now," he said.

Iran and the US both confirmed receipt of the draft on 27 August. But while the US said it would share its reactions directly with the EU, Iran said it had its "own ideas on how to conclude the negotiations."

Kanani said today that the new round of talks in Vienna will focus "on the ideas presented by the various parties, including those of Iran which have been shared will all parties to the discussions over the past week." He said Tehran hoped Iran's counterparties would "take the necessary decisions" to help overcome the remaining issues.

The JCPOA began to fall apart in 2018 after Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal and reimposed economic sanctions on Tehran. One year later, Tehran began to gradually ramp up its nuclear activities to levels beyond what was allowed under the deal, bringing it close to a threshold that the US says makes it theoretically possible to assemble a functional nuclear weapon. Tehran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons.

The US sanctions made buying Iranian crude very difficult, and at one point reduced its crude exports to well below 500,000 b/d, from close to 2.4mn b/d previously. Shipments have picked up a little since the election of US president Joe Biden in November 2020.

Argus estimates that Iran exported close to 800,000 b/d over the past three months on average. A restoration of the deal in its original form could realistically add around 1.3mn b/d of Iranian crude to global supply within six-nine months of its implementation.

By Nader Itayim