Not Much Change After 3rd Week of Vienna Talks

Concluding another week of indirect talks between Iranian and United States negotiators in Vienna, Tehran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, overseeing deliberations, said on Saturday he expects American sanctions on Iran’s energy, financial, banking and shipping sectors to “be lifted, based on agreements reached so far.” As has become the norm in recent weeks, Araghchi’s European and US counterparts sounded a more cautious tone, saying that no breakthrough was imminent and that a “long road” still lay ahead before the two sides could agree on a mutual return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement. President Joe Biden and world powers, including Germany, France and Britain, hope to strike a deal with Tehran before the International Atomic Energy Agency’s monitoring visits to Iranian nuclear facilities are discontinued in three weeks. Since 2018, when former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran has gradually breached the agreement’s restrictions on its uranium enrichment.