The parties to the nuclear deal consider Iran's response to the EU proposal
The European Commission is already evaluating, together with the other participants in the negotiation of the Iranian nuclear agreement, the response that Tehran sent last night to the proposal presented by the European Union, with a view to saving the pact that the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, abandoned in 2018.
EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Nabila Massrali confirmed that the EU, which is acting as coordinator in the negotiations, had received Iran's response and is already in consultations with the other participants in the deal and the United States on how to proceed next. The spokeswoman declined to speculate on how long it might take the parties to study the Iranian response, noting that it arrived just before midnight on Monday night.
Iran is negotiating with Germany, France, the UK, Russia, China and the US indirectly to restore the 2015 nuclear deal. In 2018, then US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact and reimposed economic sanctions against Iran, which in response accelerated its atomic programme a year later. For the past 16 months, world powers and Iran have been negotiating the restoration of the deal, so far to no avail.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell presented a new proposal to close the deal, which he described as a "final text", at the latest round of talks in Vienna on 4-8 August.
In its response last night, Iran has expressed its views on three issues that remain unresolved in the talks, in its view, the official IRNA news agency said. According to Western diplomatic sources, the main unresolved issues for Tehran are guarantees that the United States will not abandon the deal again as former President Donald Trump did in 2018.
Another outstanding issue is the Iranian request for closure of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation into the origin of traces of uranium found at three sites that Iran had not declared. However, on other issues that in the past prevented agreement, such as US sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, agreements have been reached.
