Iran and the remaining members of the nuclear deal plan on meeting in Vienna this week to save the 2015 accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The decision to meet face to face was made after the original members minus the United States held a virtual meeting. Representatives of the United States and Iran will reportedly be in the same location, though they will not meet face to face. But it is a positive sign that all parties are interested in resolving the stand-off.
While many observers took this news as a positive step that Iran would return to full compliance with the nuclear deal and the United States would reenter the deal and remove sanctions on Iran, Iranian officials are attempting to temper expectations for this first move.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi told reporters on Sunday, “What we will pursue in Vienna at the joint commission meeting is exactly the firm position that the supreme leader and officials from the country have stated numerous times.” In his latest speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on state matters, said the process to get Iran back into full compliance with the terms of the JCPOA would be for the United States to remove sanctions that were reapplied after the former president, Donald Trump, exited the deal in 2018, then have the US steps verified.
Araghchi continued, “We will not have any negotiations with the US either directly or indirectly. He reiterated that the United States must return to its JCPOA commitments, remove sanctions and have those steps verified. Talks in Vienna will be “technical [and] about the sanctions that need to be removed and the actions Iran will take,” Araghchi added. After the 2018 US exit from the nuclear deal and the reapplication of sanctions, Iran took a series of steps out of full compliance with JCPOA terms on enrichment and other aspects of the nuclear program. Iran’s argument was that the text of the JCPOA permitted them to take those steps when another party violated the deal, as the United States did.
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