Iran Nuclear Talks In Vienna Adjourn Friday
Diplomats negotiating in Vienna over reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) will wrap up their first session of talks on Friday with a final meeting.
Diplomats negotiating in Vienna over reviving Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) will wrap up their first session of talks on Friday with a final meeting.
European and Iranian officials said they will hold a last formal session before adjourning. The United States is not a direct participant in the talks because it withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and imposed heavy sanctions.
The meeting of Iran, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China is in a format known as the Joint Commission which has bookended previous rounds of talks. The Iranian official said the meeting would be held around noon (1100 GMT). The aim is to resume the talks next week, the European diplomat said.
On Thursday, Iran submitted two documents to the Commission members outlining its position on removing US sanctions and its own nuclear program. Diplomats said they will study Iran’s proposals.
Both Washington and Tehran sounded pessimistic on Thursday about the outcome of the talks, as each called on the other party to show goodwill.
A large explosion in April that inflicted major damage to the Natanz uranium enrichment site was conducted by recruiting several Iranian scientists working in the complex, the report says. They smuggled explosives into the highly secure facility and at the chosen moment the explosion was triggered remotely.
The Jewish Chronicle (JC) says 90 percent of centrifuge machines enriching uranium were destroyed and the facility was put out of action for nine months. The scientists and people involved in the operation were evacuated from Iran and are in a safe place the report adds.
The Natanz incident rattled the Iranian leadership, because it was so large, they could not hide it, or claim it was a technical accident. The Islamic Republic heavily promotes an image of invincibility to keep control of its restive population and successful sabotage acts damage its image domestically.
Natanz was the target of an earlier attack in July 2020, when a sensitive building for manufacturing new centrifuges blew up. The JC report says that in this operation explosives were imbedded in construction material that Iran bought from Israeli agents and when the time came the Mossad pushed the button.
The spectacular assassination of a top Iranian nuclear and military scientist in November 2020 was another sabotage act widely attributed to Israel, when a remotely operated heavy rifle was placed in a van and opened fire at the car of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killing him on the spot, despite the presence of a team of bodyguards.
This led to mutual recrimination between security agencies but was particularly embarrassing to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which had the responsibility to protect Fakhrizadeh.
As the Biden Administration has been trying to revive the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran, abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018, Israel has become highly worried that Tehran will get maximum concessions from the US and keep its nuclear program intact. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened in recent months to use military force if needed to deny Iran a nuclear option.
