Iran Will Respond to EU on JCPOA Final Text by Midnight, Foreign Minister Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iran will respond by midnight on Monday to EU Coordinator Enrique Mora concerning the final text of a nuclear draft agreement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) proposed last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday.

"By 12 a.m. [on Monday], we will submit our final response in a written form to the EU coordinator. If the US reaction is realistic and flexible, we will reach an agreement, but if Washington does not show flexibility, we will have to continue negotiations," Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.

Tehran has a plan B if the talks fail to revive the nuclear deal, the minister added.

On August 4, the negotiation process to restore the JCPOA with Iran resumed in Vienna, where the heads of all delegations were supposed to arrive for a possible meeting of the JCPOA joint commission.

China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, and Iran signed the JCPOA in 2015, imposing restrictions on the advancement of the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions. In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed comprehensive sanctions, prompting Iranian authorities to respond by gradually abandoning their own commitments under the deal.

In December 2021, JCPOA parties agreed on two drafts of a new deal, but no definitive agreement has been reached. Since then, the parties have had several rounds of talks on the revival of the deal.