Tehran
\nTalks to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal will restart on Monday after a brief and \u201cdisappointing\u201d pause. Chief European negotiator Enrique Mora said the next round of negotiations, the eighth so far, will see diplomats \u201cmeet to discuss and define the way ahead.\u201d
\nThe seventh round of talks ended last week with after Iran\u2019s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, decided to return to Tehran for consultations. Bagheri Kani said that the talks will resume in a \u201cfew days\u201d according to Iranian state media.
\nRepresentatives from Germany, France and Britain, however, said in a statement while they respected Bagheri Kani\u2019s decision, it brought about a \u201cdisappointing pause in negotiations.\u201d The US and Iran do not negotiate directly at these talks.
\nWestern negotiators are worried that time is running out to resuscitate the accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
\nEuropean negotiators warned last week that the benefits of the 2015 nuclear deal will be lost in \u201cweeks\u201d rather than \u201cmonths,\u201d and the US Special Envoy for Iran told CNN Tuesday that if Tehran \u201ccontinue at their current pace, we have some weeks left but not much more than that, at which point, I think, the conclusion will be that there\u2019s no deal to be revived,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cAt some point in the not-so-distant future, we will have to conclude that the JCPOA is no more, and we\u2019d have to negotiate a wholly new different deal, and of course we\u2019d go through a period of escalating crisis,\u201d Malley said.
\nThe JCPOA saw Iran agree to limit its nuclear program in exchange for relief from punishing economic sanctions. Former President Donald Trump viewed the deal as flawed and withdrew from it, prompting Iran to push forward with its nuclear program. Iran agreed in October to resume dialogue.
\nThe Biden administration has said it is willing to return to the deal, but is \u201cpreparing for a world in which there is no return\u201d to the landmark agreement, a senior State Department official acknowledged earlier this month. US officials have insisted that an agreement must be predicated on mutual compliance. Iranian officials insist on the immediate removal of all sanctions before reversing any of its nuclear progress.
\n\u201cWe are prepared with a system where both sides will know who is going to do what, when, and we\u2019re prepared to negotiate that,\u201d Malley said.
\nUS and European officials have expressed strong concerns that Iran has not made \u201cserious\u201d proposals to return to adherence to the deal.
\nMalley said it appeared Iran was \u201ctrying to build leverage by expanding their nuclear program and hoping to use that leverage to get a better deal,\u201d
\nOn Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Iran\u2019s proposals \u201cdeserve to be analyzed\u201d despite being adversely received by Western participants initially.
\n\u201cIran\u2019s team is new, but they adapted quickly and professionally. They prepared proposals that some Western participants didn\u2019t take well at first but then admitted that they deserve to be analyzed,\u201d Lavrov said in an interview with Russia Today shared by the Russian Mission in Vienna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tehran Talks to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal will restart on Monday after a brief and \u201cdisappointing\u201d pause. Chief European negotiator Enrique Mora said the next round of negotiations, the eighth so far, will see diplomats \u201cmeet to discuss and define the way ahead.\u201d The seventh round of talks ended last week with after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-234626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n