The European Union (EU) expects Tehran and Washington to decide “soon” on the final compromise worked out in Vienna to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPoA) according to the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
Representatives of the United States, Iran and other countries reached a compromise in Vienna on Monday to lift US sanctions and curtail Tehran’s nuclear programme once again. Those were the original goals of a 2015 accord designed to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. The United States unilaterally left the agreement in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump.
“Everything that could be negotiated has been incorporated into the final version of the text, and it is now up to the signatory countries to take political decisions,” said Peter Stano, spokesman for Josep Borrell. “It’s yes or no,” he added. “There is no more room for other compromises.”
“As the coordinator of the negotiations, Josep Borrell expects decisive political decisions. He has not set any deadline, but we expect all participants to make this decision very quickly,” said Stano. If an agreement is reached, Borrell will convene a meeting of the foreign ministers of the signatory countries, he added.
“The negotiations are over, this is the final text (…) and will not be renegotiated,” Josep Borrell warned in a tweet on Monday night, confirming the end of talks that have been in progress since April 2021 in Vienna.
At the press conference, The Brussels Times asked if the proposal was about a return to the same deal as before or if it also addressed Iran’s development since the deal was cancelled to a nuclear threshold country.
The Commission spokesperson replied that it basically was about a return to the full delivery of the JCPoA: the lifting of US sanctions and, by Iran, the stopping and undoing of the steps that have led Iran to exceed the limits prescribed in the JCPoA as regards enrichment and other nuclear activities.
The current partners in the agreement are Iran itself, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. The USA participated indirectly in the Vienna consultations.
