Iranian negotiators in Vienna as questions remain over IRGC delisting
The removal of the Revolutionary Guards from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations continues to play a central role in the debates surrounding the revival of the Iran nuclear deal.
Iranian negotiators landed in the Austrian capital Vienna for a new round of indirect talks with their US counterparts to try to restore the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The talks are also attended by representatives from other JCPOA parties, namely Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, held separate meetings with Russian envoy Mikhail Ulyanov and EU coordinator Enrique Mora.
The new round was launched following an EU initiative seeking to unlock the impasse in the talks that has lingered since March.
As negotiators arrived, speculation was rife on the details and the type of concessions Iran and the United States could offer as part of the EU proposal. On Thursday, reports suggested that the Iranian side had agreed to drop its demand that the United States remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The issue has been a sticking point and a brake on progress in the previous rounds of talks.
