A US State Department spokesperson has told Iran International that Washington stands ready to quickly conclude an agreement on the basis of the EU’s text for renewing the 2015 nuclear deal.
"As the EU said two weeks ago, the text they tabled then is the best and only basis on which to reach a deal,” the spokesperson said on Monday in response to an inquiry by Iran International’s correspondent Samira Gharaei. “Our position is clear: we stand ready to quickly conclude a deal on the basis of the EU’s proposals,” the State Department Press Office noted.
“Over the past few days, the EU Coordinator engaged in further consultations to help clarify and finetune any remaining questions regarding that text. Those consultations were completed today and we’ll now await the EU’s next steps,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Iran repeatedly says it is prepared for a return to mutual implementation of the JCPOA, underlining that the current text “is the only possibility basis on which to do so.” Let’s see if their actions match their words."
American and Iranian diplomats left Vienna Monday after the European chair of talks offered a fresh and “final” text for renewing the deal.
European officials described the document to journalists as a ‘take it or leave it’ offer for both sides. One told Iran International that Enrique Mora, the European Union official coordinating talks, had circulated a “final text…with all the necessary points to put into action.” Another European official told AFP that the text was “not subject to further negotiations” and that a result was expected in “the next few weeks.”
The Depp lookalike is reportedly identified as Amin Sa'les, who apparently does some modelling gigs thanks to his uncanny resemblance to the American actor.
Sa'les lives in Iran and is reportedly from the north-western city of Tabriz. His modelling work is with local agencies.
Huge gatherings have been held in Iran and some other Muslim countries in the past 10 days, the first days of the first month of the Islamic calendar, to commemorate the third Shiite Imam Hussain.
Such ceremonies are vastly popular among Iranians as they are complemented by copious supplies of free food and drinks, known as nazri. They are given free by individuals and groups at kiosks called heyats set up all over the country.
The highlight of the month-long ceremonies of Muharram are the Days of Tasu'a and Ashura, the anniversary of the slaying of Shiite Imam Hussein and his 72 companions by his rivals to the leadership of Muslims in the 7th century.
Ceremonies have been held for centuries in Iran and among Shiites in other countries, marking the event in the 680 AD battle of Karbala, in present-day Iraq, and have gained greater state support since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
European officials described the document to journalists as a ‘take it or leave it’ offer for both sides. One told Iran International that Enrique Mora, the European Union official coordinating talks in the Austrian capital since Thursday, had circulated a “final text…with all the necessary points to put into action.” Another European official told AFP that the text was “not subject to further negotiations” and that a result was expected in “the next few weeks.”
By contrast, the official IRNA news agency portrayed Mora’s text as “some ideas concerning some of the remaining issues.” IRNA said that “four rounds of talks” in Vienna had seen “relative progress in some issues,” while Mora’s proposals required “further and more complex examination” before Iran gave its “opinions and observations to the coordinator [Mora] and other parties.”
Iran’s Nour News, which is affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council, denied a report that the text would be finalized within hours.
The US State Department told Iran International that Washington will "now await the EU’s next steps" and added, "we stand ready to quickly conclude a deal on the basis of the EU’s proposals."
Discussions in Vienna began Thursday after the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in late July circulated a text designed to bridge gaps between Iran and the US over restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
Nearly a year of multilateral talks in Vienna, April 2021-March 2022, and June’s bilateral United States-Iran meeting in Qatar, failed to agree which US sanctions, introduced after 2018 when Washington left the JCPOA, breached the agreement, and how Iran should return its nuclear program, developed after 2019, to JCPOA limits.
‘Swift decisions’
In a newspaper article July 26, Borrell said the time had come for “swift political decisions” as “the space for additional significant compromises has been exhausted.” But while European officials stressed Borrell’s text was a last chance to restore the JCPOA, Vienna brought days of intense discussions, political and technical, as EU diplomats scurried between the two different hotels along Vienna’s historic Ringstrasse where the American and Iranian delegations were based.
Reports emerging from the talks suggested the substantive remaining points were guarantees sought by Iran of access to world markets as required under the JCPOA, and continuing enquiries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into nuclear work carried out by Iran before 2003.
The European official speaking to Iran International reiterated the EU’s position that these enquiries, over unexplained uranium traces found at several sites, are ‘technical’ matters within the IAEA’s remit and unrelated to the JCPOA talks. Tehran argues that the agency in 2015 issued a conclusive report on Iran’s pre-2003 work and revived the matter only after allegations made by Israel.
The latest Vienna talks have essentially been between Iran and the US with the EU coordinating. Other JCPOA signatories – China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom – have sat aside while holding some bilateral meetings to renew progress.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s IAEA ambassador, tweeted Monday that “the participants in the Vienna talks now needed to decide if the draft is acceptable.” He put “the final text” in quotation marks.
