JCPOA Talks on Good Track: Senior Iranian MP

Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, spokesman for the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told Tasnim that reports received by the lawmakers about the talks show that they are proceeding “on a good track”.

He said there are still a few fundamental issues that need to be resolved, adding that without their settlement, reaching an agreement would not be easy.

The Islamic Republic insists in the negotiations on the resolution of issues like removal of the sanctions and provision of guarantees on the implementation of commitments, the parliamentarian stressed.

While a significant part of the path toward an agreement has been taken so far, he said, the Western countries, especially the Americans, should take a major step toward lifting the unjust sanctions they have imposed on the Iranian nation.

Referring to remarks by some US officials about the need for Iran to make an important political decision to reach an agreement in the JCPOA talks, Abbaszadeh Meshkini said it was the West, especially the Americans, who unilaterally violated the JCPOA and left the agreement and, thus, they are the ones that must make the important political decision on lifting the sanctions.

Iran’s foreign minister on Friday hoped the talks in Vienna will lead to a “good agreement in the near future”.

“As for the Islamic Republic of Iran and the active initiatives it has put on the negotiating table, we are very close to a good agreement,” Hossein Amirabdollahian said.

“But it is the Western parties that must show their true initiative and flexibility and determine these negotiations will lead to a result within the next few days or weeks (with their approach to Iran's initiatives).”

The top Iranian diplomat emphasized that there are still some outstanding issues in the Vienna talks but Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Baqeri and members of his team would continue the negotiations with seriousness in order to reach a good agreement.

The United States left the Iran deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018 and began to implement what it called the “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, depriving the country of the economic benefits of the agreement, including the removal of sanctions, for which Iran had agreed to certain caps on its nuclear activities.

In the meantime, the other parties to the deal, in particular France, Britain and Germany, only paid lip service to safeguarding Iran’s economic dividends as promised under the JCPOA, prompting Iran – after an entire year of “strategic patience” – to reduce its nuclear obligations in a legal move under the deal.

The Vienna talks began last April on the assumption that the US, under the Joe Biden administration, is willing to repeal the so-called maximum pressure policy pursued by former President Donald Trump.

Tehran says it will not settle for anything less than the removal of all US sanctions in a verifiable manner. It also wants guarantees that Washington would not abandon the agreement again.