US, Iran to hold nuclear deal talks in Vienna without facing each other

Agencies | Vienna

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Reports of an upcoming indirect nuclear deal talk between the US and Iran flooded the internet yesterday, with the US State Department later coming out to confirm the plans.

Diplomats confirmed that officials from Tehran and Washington would travel next week to Vienna for the talks. However, they will not hold direct talks for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers.

“Iran and the US will be in the same town, but not the same room,” a European diplomatic source said. A Western diplomat said they would adopt “a shuttle diplomacy approach.”

The talks will seek to create negotiating lists of sanctions that the United States could lift and nuclear obligations Iran should meet, said a senior official with the European Union, the coordinator of the deal. Those lists “should marry at some point.

In the end, we are approaching this in a parallel way. I do think we can do it in less than two months,” the official said. He was speaking after Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany and Britain - all parties to the 2015 deal - held virtual talks on Friday to see how to progress.

An Iranian official said US Iran envoy Rob Malley and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan would be in Vienna.

Experts view the move as a step in the right direction, even without face-to-face talks. The aim is to reach an agreement within two months, the EU diplomat said. “If we don’t get there in two months, we will see what happens, but it will be ‘definitely’ bad news,” the EU official said.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said it was good that talks were resuming, but time was of the essence. “An agreement that is once again fully respected would be a plus for security for the entire region and the best basis for talks on other important issues of regional stability,” he said in a statement.

Former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. His successor Joe Biden wants to revive the accord, but Washington and Tehran have been at odds over who should take the first step.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN atomic watchdog said on Friday that talks between world powers and Iran over its troubled 2015 nuclear deal had ended and that his assessment was that things were on the right track.