Vienna Talks Must Lead To Concrete Political Decisions On Lifting Sanctions - Tehran

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2022)   Negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna must produce concrete political solutions, and the United States should announce the decisions on lifting sanctions, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday at a press conference.   

The negotiators paused talks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last Saturday and returned to their countries for consultations. Vienna talks are planned to resume this week.

"The remaining key topics in Vienna Talks require special political decisions," Khatibzadeh said, adding that "if the aforementioned issues are met, we will move toward a lasting agreements," as quoted by Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The eighth round of Vienna talks started on December 7. The seventh round of negotiations on bringing Iran back to the nuclear deal ended on December 17. The sides agreed on two drafts of the deal, which took into account Iranian interests.

The talks were paused on December 31 due to New Year holidays and were resumed on January 3. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani called the talks successful, while US spokesman Ned price expressed some skepticism, saying that negotiations should be a "matter of weeks." but not a "matter of months."

JCPOA was signed in 2015 by the United Kingdom, Russia, China, Germany, the US, France, the European Union, and Iran, imposing restrictions on the advancement of the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions. In 2018, then US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Iranian authorities responded with a gradual retreat from JCPOA obligations, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges and the level of uranium enrichment.