TEHRAN (National Times) – The European Union and United States said Tuesday they were studying Iran s response to a “final” draft agreement on reviving a 2015 nuclear accord with major powers the EU presented at talks in Vienna.<\/p>\n
The US had already said Monday that it was informing EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell of its response to the text he submitted on August 8.<\/p>\n
The possibility of a deal which might lead to the lifting of US sanctions on Iran s oil output of 2.5 million barrels per day has already helped trigger a fall in prices on world markets, with US oil futures dropping nearly three percent to finish below $90 a barrel.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Borrell — who coordinated talks to bring Iran and the United States back into the deal — said the Iranian response was received late Monday and the EU was consulting with the United States and the other parties “on the way ahead”.<\/p>\n
“Everybody is studying the response and this is not the time for the moment to speculate on timing,” Borrell s spokesperson Nabila Massrali later told a press briefing.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the US State Department said: “We have received Iran s comments through the EU and are studying them. We are sharing our views with the EU.”<\/p>\n
Iran s official IRNA news agency reported earlier Tuesday that “an agreement will be concluded if the United States reacts with realism and flexibility” to Iran s response.<\/p>\n
Iran s ISNA news agency cited an “informed source” as saying that Tehran “expects to receive the response of the other side in the next two days”.<\/p>\n
IRNA had said Friday that Iran might accept the “final” text drawn up by the European Union to save the deal, which aimed to curb Iran s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.<\/p>\n
The deal has been moribund since the 2018 withdrawal of the United States under then president Donald Trump whose administration reimposed crippling sanctions.<\/p>\n
An unidentified Iranian diplomat said, according to IRNA, that “the European Union s proposals are acceptable provided that they provide assurances to Iran on various points, related to sanctions and safeguards” as well as pending issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency.<\/p>\n
– Three issues –<\/p>\n
IRNA said the remaining differences centred on three issues.<\/p>\n
“The United States has expressed flexibility on two of them verbally but that needs to be incorporated into the text,” the news agency said without elaborating.<\/p>\n
“The third issue has to do with a guarantee that the deal will be lasting, and that depends on realism from the United States to reassure Iran.”<\/p>\n
None of the parties have spelt out in detail the points of contention that are still blocking a deal.<\/p>\n
Iran s demand for an end to US blacklisting of its ideological army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a “terrorist organisation” has been dropped from the discussions and will instead be handled after the deal, a senior EU official said earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The official said progress had also been made on Tehran s call for guarantees that there will be no repeat of Washington reneging on the deal as it did under Trump in 2018.<\/p>\n
Tehran and Washington still have to agree on “issues related to sanctions lifting and a couple of nuclear questions that did not exist in March as the Iranians advanced their programme”, the EU official said.<\/p>\n
Iran also wants the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to end its long-running investigation into traces of enriched uranium found at sites not declared as having hosted nuclear activities.<\/p>\n
Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia, as well as the United States indirectly, resumed talks on the nuclear accord earlier in August after a months-long hiatus.<\/p>\n
The EU-coordinated negotiations to revive the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, began in April 2021 before coming to a standstill in March.<\/p>\n
The EU said last Tuesday it expected Tehran and Washington to “very quickly” respond to the “final” text aimed at salvaging the deal.<\/p>\n
Iran s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that, after the lengthy negotiations, “what counts for us is verification” that sanctions are lifted in practice.<\/p>\n
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said it was up to Iran to make a final deal, rejecting reported demands that are outside the scope of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
“We do believe that what could be negotiated has been negotiated, and we re prepared to affect a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA,” said Price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEHRAN (National Times) – The European Union and United States said Tuesday they were studying Iran s response to a “final” draft agreement on reviving a 2015 nuclear accord with major powers the EU presented at talks in Vienna. The US had already said Monday that it was informing EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n