The European Union (EU) announced on Tuesday that it is “studying” Tehran’s response to its text prepared to save the 2015 agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, which seems to put the final stretch of a tortuous period of negotiations.
The talks between Iran and the great powers, launched in April 2021 in Vienna, seek to reactivate the 2015 international agreement, which guarantees the civilian nature of the Persian country’s nuclear program, accused of wanting to equip itself with an atomic bomb despite its repeated denials. .
The “final” compromise proposed by the EU on August 8, after a hiatus of several months in the talks, favors the return of the United States to the agreement, from which it unilaterally withdrew in 2018 at the initiative of then President Donald Trump.
Equally would allow the lifting of US sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, on the condition that this country respects its commitments and stops exceeding the prescribed limits on uranium enrichment, as well as other sensitive nuclear activities that raise fears of a military dimension.
The cover of a newspaper in Iran, with the news about the dialogue between Tehran and the European Union. Photo: REUTERS
Proposal and response
“We received Iran’s response on Monday night. We are studying it and we are consulting with the other partners” of the agreement regarding “the way forward,” a spokeswoman for Josep Borrell, head of diplomacy, told the AFP agency. and facilitator of the recent indirect negotiations in Vienna between Tehran and Washington.
An hour earlier, Tehran said it had sent its response to the “final text” prepared by the European Union, awaiting a quick response.
“Iran sent its written response to a draft of the draft Vienna agreement, and announced that an agreement will be reached if the United States reacts with realism and flexibility,” the official IRNA agency said.
The 2015 Vienna Agreement was signed by Iran, on one side, and the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, and Russia on the other.
The historic pact was torpedoed with Washington’s withdrawal in 2018 and the reestablishment of US sanctions, which are suffocating the Iranian economy. In response, Iran progressively stopped honoring its commitments.
According to the Iranian news agency Isna, citing an “informed source”, Tehran now expects “to receive the answer from the other side in the next two days”.
A wall of what was the United States embassy in Tehran, with anti-American graffiti. Photo: REUTERS
the conflicting points
“Disagreements have to do with three points. The United States has verbally expressed its flexibility on two of them, but that should be included in the text. The third question has to do with the guarantee that the agreement is lasting”, demanded by Iran to ensure that Washington will not withdraw again, the agency added.
In Brussels, however, when asked about the time it would take to analyze the Iranian response, Borrell’s spokeswoman, Nabila Massrali, told the press that “at this moment the whole world is examining (Iran’s) response and it is not the time to speculate with a calendar”.
Borrell “maintains regular contact with all the participants (in the negotiations), including the United States,” added the spokeswoman, stressing that the EU is not going to “share the details of the ongoing process or the positions of the parties.”
The Iranian demand that the United States remove the Revolutionary Guards from its blacklist is no longer on the agenda, according to a senior European official.
However, Tehran’s demands for guarantees on the durability of the agreement remain on the table, as well as Iran’s demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) close the chapter on undeclared facilities in Iran, where traces of enriched uranium were found.
According to Mohammad Marandi, adviser to the Iranian team of negotiators, “the issues on hold are not difficult to settle. They have to do with Iran’s fear of past failures by the United States and the EU.”
“I cannot say that we will reach an agreement, but we are closer than before,” he wrote on Twitter.
On Monday, the US State Department refused to say whether Washington is willing to approve the plan presented by the EU, or whether it will lift its sanctions in the event of Iranian approval of the European text.
“The only way to achieve a mutual return to the JCPOA,” the English acronym by which the agreement is known, “is for Iran to abandon its unacceptable demands, which go far beyond the agreement,” the State Department said.
Fuente: AFP
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