Tehran, Iran (Al Jazeera) – Nuclear negotiations on Tuesday promise to be the beginning of a lengthy but vital process to restore Iran’s landmark 2015 nuclear accord.
Representatives of the world powers that signed a 2015 nuclear deal are headed to Vienna on Tuesday to save the landmark accord, but the path forward appears long and arduous.
News on Friday that remaining members of the accord – Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom – will hold in-person talks was greeted as a welcome development to avoid a total breakdown.
In a late-night Clubhouse voice chat, Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said last week the “deadlock is being broken” on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as a “childish” argument over who should act first comes to an end.
Representatives from Iran and the United States, however, will not be in the same room together in Vienna, as Iran insists there will be no direct or indirect talks between the two countries before the US lifts the harsh sanctions former President Donald Trump imposed after unilaterally abandoning the deal in 2018.
A year later, Iran started scaling back its commitments under the deal in response as the US continued its “maximum pressure” campaign despite opposition by the other signatories.
