Iran opposes interim deal in 'complicated' Vienna talks
The Iranian negotiators appeared dogged in their demand for a full removal of US sanctions, rejecting reports that an interim deal is in the making.
"There is no discussion whatsoever on an interim deal," declared Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, as Tehran and the remaining members of the Iran nuclear deal were resuming talks in Vienna on how to revive the accord.
Araghchi, who was also a senior member of the Iranian team during talks that culminated in the original deal in 2015, added that Tehran will only negotiate "the final step in the removal of the unjust US sanctions." He dismissed as "baseless" all the "rumors" about a step-by-step agreement.
The statement was made ahead of the resumption of talks in the Austrian capital on April 20, in which the United States has been involved but indirectly. Details from the meetings remain undisclosed, but in the public sphere, Iranian officials have not lowered the bar, insisting that Washington must lift all the sanctions it reimposed on the Islamic Republic following the 2018 departure from the accord under the former president, Donald Trump.
Araghchi repeated an earlier assertion that Iran will not allow for the talks to become "talks of attrition," while not "rushing for the outcomes" either. Any decision in this regard, he said, will be made by senior officials in Tehran, an indirect reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose greenlight is essential for any signature by the Iranian negotiators.
