Iran on Monday described attempts to return to the 2015 nuclear deal as succeeding only if the United States agreed to Tehran’s remaining demands.
According to Reuters, Iran’s foreign ministry outlined the remaining hurdles to an agreement as including the degree to which sanctions would be removed, safeguards that the U.S. would not leave the deal again, and the unresolved issue of traces of uranium found at undeclared sites in Iran.
An Iranian diplomat described the current talks, which have been ongoing for 10 months, at a “now or never” impasse. “If they cannot reach a deal this week, the talks will collapse forever.”
On Monday, the French foreign ministry urged talks to conclude by the end of the week.
On Monday, Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani met with the EU’s Enrique Mora, the coordinator of the Vienna negotiations.
Iran reportedly has added new stipulations to the list of existing demands, including removing the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) from the US foreign terror organization list.
A source told Reuters that Iran’s “stance… has become even more uncompromising. They now insist on removal of sanctions on the IRGC and want to open issues that had already been agreed.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Saturday his country was studying a rough draft of a deal to revive the 2015 agreement which was hammered out during the Vienna talks, AFP reported.
Iran is “seriously reviewing (the) draft of the agreement,” Amir-Abdollahian said on Twitter, adding he had spoken by phone with the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrel.
We are “all trying to reach a good deal,” he wrote. “Our red lines are made clear to Western parties. Ready to immediately conclude a good deal, should they show real will.”
Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018.