Negotiations aimed at resuscitating the international nuclear deal with Iran resumed on Thursday in Vienna.
Talks on salvaging the 2015 ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’ agreement have been stalled for months. The European Union’s chief negotiator, Enrique Mora, is coordinating the negotiations.
Western diplomats believe there are only weeks left to salvage the deal that would prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
There were no immediate signs of a breakthrough in the negotiations on Thursday. Delegations, including diplomats from Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia and China, discussed a draft drawn up in March and slightly modified since then.
The agreement curtails Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions but talks between Tehran and the six parties to the accord, China, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and the United States, have dragged on for months.
In 2015, Iran signed an agreement with the Six not to develop nuclear weapons. In 2018, under the impulse of then-President Donald Trump, the U.S. withdrew from the accord, after which Tehran increasingly violated the limits on its nuclear programme.
Under current U.S. President Joe Biden, talks were launched in 2021 to resuscitate the nuclear deal.
