After a first day of “constructive” talks, the Iranian nuclear discussions continued, on Wednesday 7 April, in Vienna. A new meeting of the Joint Committee could be held this Friday.
On Friday 2 April, at a virtual meeting, the members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Joint Commission - France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Russia and Iran - had agreed to meet again in Vienna, on Tuesday 6 April, in order to “clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures, including through convening meetings of the relevant expert group”, announced a press release from the European External Action Service (EEAS).
On Tuesday, the delegations met in the Austrian capital, the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for a “constructive” meeting of the Joint Commission, according to Enrique Mora, Deputy Secretary General of the EEAS.
“There is unity and ambition for a joint diplomatic process with two expert groups on nuclear implementation and sanction lifting”, Mr Mora said via Twitter.
According to a European diplomat interviewed byAFP, the process could last “15 days, a month, we don’t know...”.
The Russian ambassador to the IAEA has warned that restoring the agreement will take time. “How long? No one knows”, explained Mikhail Ulyanov on Twitter, adding that many difficult issues remain to be resolved. However, according to him, the most important thing is that following the meeting on Tuesday 6 April, “practical work in this direction has begun”.
For his part, the Iranian negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, said in a video broadcast on Irinn, the public broadcasting information channel, that “overall, the meeting was constructive”. He reiterated that if the US lifts sanctions on Iran, his country would be “fully prepared to stop its nuclear remedial measures”. He called for the lifting of US sanctions “in one step”.
As coordinator, Mr Mora announced that he would intensify separate contacts in Vienna with all parties concerned, including the US. The Americans, who denounced the agreement in May 2018, are not at the negotiating table, but are present in Vienna - represented by Rob Malley, the US special envoy on Iran - and are regularly informed of the progress of the talks.
On Wednesday 7 April, Mr Malley also met with Mr Ulyanov. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)