All signatories to the Iran deal want to achieve results as soon as possible, but the quality of a potential outcome is what matters most, the Russian ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Saturday as the talks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) resumed in the Austrian capital.
"All participants reiterated their determination to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion," he noted in a tweet.
The Joint Commission of #JCPOA opened today the sixth round of the #ViennaTalks. All participants reiterated their determination to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion. All of us want to do it ASAP, but the quality of an outcome document comes first. pic.twitter.com/oakvhcC3n6
— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) June 12, 2021
Since early April, Vienna has been hosting the talks, with three working commissions currently negotiating the lifting of sanctions and the return of Tehran and Washington to the deal. Iran's top negotiator Abbas Araqchi has said that the fifth round of talks was difficult and unlikely to be the last.
Recently, Beijing has advised Washington to lift the sanctions against Iran if it wants to return to the nuclear deal. In late May, the US government said it would "carefully review" its sanctions regime against the Islamic Republic if Iran returns to full compliance with the JCPOA.
"Our message to [the US] is that they should stop shilly-shallying by moving decisively to sanction-lifting," China's ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog, Wang Qun, said, according to Al-Arabiya.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has expressed doubt whether the current US administration will agree to abandon the policy of sanctions against Tehran, as he accused the United States of using sanctions as a bargaining tool to put pressure on the Islamic Republic.
It remains unclear whether @POTUS and @SecBlinken are ready to bury the failed “maximum pressure” policy of Trump and @mikepompeo, and cease using #EconomicTerrorism as bargaining “leverage”.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) June 7, 2021
Iran is in compliance with the #JCPOA. Just read paragraph 36.
Time to change course.
The 2015 agreement, reached by China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the US, the EU, as well as Iran, envisioned the lifting of sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limiting its nuclear program. The US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, slapping Iran with harsh sanctions as part of its "maximum pressure campaign". Following the US withdrawal, Iran began to gradually abandon its commitments under the deal.
