{"id":40637,"date":"2021-12-28T11:06:47","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T07:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/?p=40637"},"modified":"2021-12-28T11:06:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T07:36:47","slug":"iran-sets-the-stage-for-a-deal-in-vienna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/40637\/iran-sets-the-stage-for-a-deal-in-vienna\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran sets the stage for a deal in Vienna"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

With the Vienna talks kinking in again, Iran has moved to voice its expectations from other parties, especially the European trio \u2013 France, Germany and Britain (E3). During the last round, the E3, particularly France, played an unconstructive role in the talks, preventing the negotiators, at least in one case, from hammering out a document that was to serve as the basis for the next round of talks.<\/p>\n

The first round of talks under President Ebrahim Raisi began in late November. Since then, two rounds have been held with the current round being the third or based on the European perception, the eighth.<\/p>\n

During the two last rounds, Iran presented two proposals on nuclear and sanctions-related measures despite a Western accusation of not being serious and playing for time. The Europeans first rejected the Iranian proposals though they were drafted in strict conformity with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But then were forced to incorporate the Iranian proposals into the two final documents reached at the end of the last round.<\/p>\n

A source familiar with the talks told Iran\u2019s state news agency IRNA that France played a \u201cdisruptive\u201d role in the previous round. According to the source, when the French delegation was absent from the talks due to France\u2019s participation in the G7 ministerial summit in Liverpool, \u201csignificant progress\u201d was made on preparing the drafts. But the French representative returned to the talks after a two-day absence and \u201ca disruptive trend started again,\u201d according to the source.<\/p>\n

The source said the drafts were acceptable to all parties but the French negotiators opposed the drafts and \u201cthe course of the talks was disrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the French unconstructive role, the Europeans, together with the US, sought to create a sense of urgency by announcing self-imposed deadlines. Iran, however, said that it will not fall into the trap of \u201cfactitious deadlines.\u201d Quoting a source with knowledge about the talks, IRNA said Iran\u2019s negotiating team will stay in Vienna as long as there is a need.<\/p>\n

Iran has also positively engaged in the talks and some progress was made in the nuclear sphere which is germane to Iran. But little has been achieved on the sanctions issue on which the US\u00a0should play a major role. Despite overall progress, the Europeans tend to portray the atmosphere in Vienna as gloomy. The Western parties are trying to keep the media environment around the talks negative by issuing statements and comments on the content of the talks, in order to put pressure on the Iranian delegation to get concessions, and on the other hand to blame Iran for the possible lack of progress.<\/p>\n

This is while Iran has positively engaged and that the ball is in the West\u2019s court. But instead of engaging positively, the West continues to foster an atmosphere of urgency regarding the JCPOA.<\/p>\n

Recently, US\u00a0Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that the window is closing to resuscitate the 2015 deal. \u201cI\u2019m not going to put a time limit on it or give you the number of meters remaining on the runway, except to say, yes, it is getting very, very, very short,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n

US\u00a0special envoy for Iran Robert Malley set the time frame to save the JCPOA at \u201cweeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some observers believe that if the US\u00a0believes there is an urgency to reach a deal with Iran, then it should relinquish the so-called \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign initiated by former US\u00a0President Donald Trump. But the Biden administration not only refused to give up the campaign but also added to the sanctions on Iran. Furthermore, US\u00a0officials even began threatening Iran with a military option in case diplomacy failed. US\u00a0and Israeli officials have held talks to discuss \u201calternatives.\u201d Some believe that Israeli-American talk of other options reflects a strategic confusion on the past of Washington and Tel Aviv vis-\u00e0-vis Iran\u2019s measured and calibrated moves on the ground and at the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

First published in Tehran Times<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Vienna talks kinking in again, Iran has moved to voice its expectations from other parties, especially the European trio \u2013 France, Germany and Britain (E3). During the last round, the E3, particularly France, played an unconstructive role in the talks, preventing the negotiators, at least in one case, from hammering out a document […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[7100,7110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-en","category-politic-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zardis.net\/news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}