By Francois Murphy and Parisa Hafezi
VIENNA (Reuters) – Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are close to reaching an agreement, the chief British envoy said on Friday as she and her French and German colleagues flew home to brief ministers.
“We are close. E3 negotiators leaving Vienna briefly to update Ministers on state of play. Ready to return soon,” Stephanie Al-Qaq said on Twitter, referring to the chief British, French and German diplomats involved in the talks.
Despite the British diplomat’s teasing Twitter post, two sources with direct knowledge said there was still no deal and European and Iranian officials said that Iran’s lead negotiator, nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani was staying in Vienna.
Negotiators have worked for 11 months to try to revive the 2015 deal under which Iran limited its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain fissile material for a bomb – an ambition Tehran denies – in return for relief from economic sanctions.
Then U.S. President Donald Trump reneged on the pact in 2018, restoring U.S. sanctions that have slashed Iran’s oil exports, and prompting Iran to begin violating the deal’s nuclear limitations about a year later.
On Thursday, the chief Russian diplomat at the talks said he did not think they would now collapse and a ministerial meeting – typically where a deal would be blessed – was likely but he could not say if it would be on Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
However, there are myriad pieces that must fall into place for a deal to come together.
One wildcard is an effort by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve questions about nuclear material that the Vienna-based agency suspects Iran failed to declare, another obstacle to reaching an agreement to revive the deal.
The IAEA has found particles of processed uranium at three apparently old sites that Iran never declared and has repeatedly said Tehran has not provided satisfactory answers.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi will travel to Tehran on Saturday hoping to agree on a process that would lead to the end of the investigation, potentially clearing a way for the wider agreement, diplomats said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also suggested that an agreement may be close but said the West’s “haste” to reach a nuclear deal “cannot prevent the observance of Iran’s red lines.”
“Our delegation will continue to work hard to reach a final and good agreement,” Iranian media quoted Amirabdollahian as telling the EU’s top diplomat Joseph Borrell by telephone.
“We are ready to finalise a good and immediate agreement,” he said, adding: “Most of Iran’s requests have been considered in the upcoming agreement.”
(Reporting By Francois Murphy and Parisa Hafezi in Vienna; Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris and by Arshad Mohammed in Saint Paul, Minn.; Editing by Alistair Bell)
