There may be a meeting in Vienna “this week” to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. High Representative for European Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said on Monday.
The European Union reached a compromise to save the nuclear deal after representatives of several countries reached an agreement on August 4. Iran said it responded on August 16, and the United States said it was investigating that response. The goal is to get the agreement struck in 2015 between the US, UK, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran back on track. Under the deal, Iran will not develop nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and imposed new sanctions on Tehran. Then Iran also decided not to abide by the rules of the agreement, after which it increasingly violated the limits of the nuclear program. The United States has not yet officially responded. “But we are waiting for that and I hope the answer will ensure that we can finish the negotiations,” Borrell told a news conference in Santander, Spain. ‘I hope so, but I have no guarantees. There should have been a meeting last weekend, but that wasn’t possible. “It may follow this week,” said Borrell, who is facilitating negotiations on the deal.
According to him, it will be difficult to improve the text, since it is the result of a balancing process. Iran on Monday denounced the slow response of the United States to Iran’s proposals after it saw the EU text. The US government is responsible for the current situation. “If it shows its political determination on the ground (…) and acts responsibly, we can move to the next step,” a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.
