negotiations
EU diplomats disappointed after nuclear talks with Iran
The Iranian flag flies in front of the building of the International Center, which is the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (Archive image) Photo: Florian Schroetter / AP / dpa
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German, French and British diplomats appear disillusioned after nuclear talks with Iran. You warn that the window of time for a diplomatic solution is getting smaller and smaller.
From the perspective of high-ranking European diplomats, Iran has taken a destructive stance in the newly started nuclear negotiations.
“Iran is breaking with almost all difficult compromises that had been agreed in several months of tough negotiations,” said the German, French and British negotiators on Friday. The time window for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute is therefore getting smaller and smaller, they warned.
After five days of talks in Vienna, the delegations returned to their capitals to meet again in the Austrian capital next week.
USA disillusioned after talks
The US was also disillusioned after the talks. “The new Iranian government did not come to Vienna with constructive proposals,” said US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Much progress had been made in the past negotiations, but Iran was not this week about resolving the issues that were still in dispute, she said.
The aim of the negotiations is to restrict the Iranian nuclear program again and to lift US sanctions against the Islamic Republic. This is to save the 2015 nuclear deal that is supposed to prevent the development of nuclear weapons in Iran.
When the talks were put on hold for five months in June, some elements of a possible agreement had already been worked out. The new Iranian chief negotiator Ali Bagheri said this week presented two new proposals on sanctions and nuclear aspects that are now being examined in western capitals as well as in Beijing and Moscow.
However, the European diplomats made it clear on Friday that the Iranian position offered no realistic chance of an agreement. “After a thorough and careful examination, we are disappointed and concerned about the changes proposed by Iran to the text negotiated over the last six rounds of the Vienna talks,” it said.
In 2018, under the then President Donald Trump, Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement and imposed severe economic sanctions. Tehran then exceeded the agreed limits on its nuclear program and began producing uranium that is almost weapons-grade. At the Vienna talks, the three EU states, together with Russia and China, mediate between Iran and the USA.