Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and US special envoy Rob Malley both announced on Twitter on Wednesday that they were leaving for Vienna. Both said it was the other side’s turn to clear the blockade. Iranian government circles said talks should start on Thursday.
There were no indications of an imminent breakthrough. The most recent round, mediated by the EU, took place in June and ended with no agreement. Eurasia Group expert Henry Rome put the chances of an agreement this year at 35 percent. He wrote in an analysis that neither side wanted to be held responsible for a failure. “Both the US and Iran have a vested interest in keeping alive the prospect of an agreement, although both governments appear to have resigned themselves to failure.”
The West has been trying for a long time to save the 2015 international nuclear agreement. It has been on the brink since the then US President Donald Trump unilaterally resigned in 2018 and imposed new sanctions on Iran. Iran then began gradually breaching its commitments. After eleven months of negotiations between Iranian and US representatives under President Joe Biden, a revival initially seemed within reach in March. The agreement aims to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The government in Tehran denies such a goal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency recently warned that Iran only needs a few weeks to produce the starting material for a nuclear bomb. Tehran has always emphasized that nuclear technology should only be used for peaceful purposes.
Source: Nachrichten
