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[이데일리 방성훈 기자] Iran announced on the 29th that it would resume negotiations to restore the nuclear agreement (JCPOA). It has been five months since Iran’s unilateral cessation of negotiations in June.
Iran’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Bagheri Khani tweeted on the 3rd (local time): “In a phone call with the European Union’s Deputy Secretary-General for External Relations Enrique Mora, on November 29, in Vienna, Austria, we decided to impose illegal and inhumane sanctions. We agreed to resume negotiations with the goal of abolition,” he said.
Earlier, Vice Minister Carney tweeted on the 27th of last month, “We had a very productive and constructive conversation with Deputy Secretary-General Mora on the essentials for a successful negotiation. The exact (negotiating) resumption date will be announced next week.”
The European Union for Foreign Relations (EEAS) also issued a statement on the same day, confirming that negotiations would resume on the 29th, saying that “delegates from China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Iran will attend the joint committee under the presidency of the EU.” The EEAS explained that “the attendees will continue to discuss the prospects for the US return to the JCPOA and how to ensure that all parties fully and effectively implement the nuclear agreement.”
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In 2015, during the Barack Obama administration, Iran signed a nuclear agreement with six permanent members of the UN Security Council: the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.
However, the former administration of Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and reinstated sanctions against Iran. Since May 2019, Iran has responded in stages, violating the provisions of the nuclear agreement to freeze or reduce its nuclear program.
In response, China, Britain, France and Russia began negotiations with Iran to restore the nuclear deal in Vienna, Austria, in April. Although the U.S. also participated, negotiations were conducted through mediation from the EU and other countries, rather than direct negotiations with Iran. However, since the inauguration of hardline president Seyed Ibrahim Raish in June, Iran declared an indefinite suspension of negotiations on the 20th of the same month, saying there was “no real progress”.
The United States welcomed the news of the resumption of negotiations and said that Iran’s special envoy Robert Marley would lead the negotiations through indirect dialogue as before. State Department spokeswoman Ned Price said at a press briefing on Wednesday that “there is hope that Iran will return in good faith.”
It is unclear whether negotiations between Iran and the United States will be able to narrow the differences in views even if they resume. So far, Iran has maintained that it will return to the nuclear deal only if the US lifts economic sanctions. The United States, on the other hand, strongly argued that Iran would have to re-abide by the nuclear deal before sanctions could be lifted.
“I think Iran can do this in a relatively short period of time if it’s serious,” Price said. This is a reaffirmation of the US position.
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