(Al Jazeera) – The deal’s remaining signatories meet as the EU urges Iran to bring ‘realistic proposals’ to ease negotiations.
Negotiations between Iran and world powers aimed at salvaging a tattered 2015 nuclear deal have resumed in Vienna after a few days’ pause, with tensions high after Tehran made demands last week that European countries strongly criticised.
On Thursday, a meeting of all the deal’s remaining signatories – Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China – was due to start at midday, chaired by European Union diplomat Enrique Mora.
The United States has participated indirectly in the talks because it withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has signalled that he wants to rejoin the deal. Washington plans to send a delegation led by Robert Malley, the special US envoy for Iran, to Vienna over the weekend.
European diplomats urged Tehran to come back with “realistic proposals” after the Iranian delegation made numerous demands last week that other parties to the accord deemed unacceptable. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said this week that the US hopes the next round of talks “proceeds differently”.
Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Vienna, said Iranian officials have warned that the comments from European officials could harm the talks.
“The Iranian foreign minister himself had a phone conversation with the EU’s top diplomat during which he stressed that the comments that have come from the EU are not constructive and they could really have a damaging effect on these talks,” she said.
“There is a sense that the next 48 hours will be very crucial,” she added.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani held a trilateral meeting with the Chinese and Russian delegations ahead of the talks with all the deal’s signatories.
