Iran’s long shadow from Vienna to Baghdad and beyond
More may be riding on the JCPOA talks than just the fate of Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran: Showtime in Vienna
The parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) are meeting in Vienna for the first time in nearly six months, giving new life to the frequently-declared-dead Iran nuclear deal.
The meeting follows EU Policy Chief Josep Borrell’s last chance (more or less) consensus paper, which has been studied by both Washington and Tehran ahead of the Vienna meetings.
The US position is that it is ready to sign the deal on the table. The burden, in Washington’s score, is on Iran to let go of those issues which have nothing to do with the 2015 agreement itself, such as: removing designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group; so-called "guarantees" that the US will not pull out of the deal again, as US President Donald Trump did in 2018; and a dispute with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its past nuclear research.
