DOHA, March 26 – Leading EU diplomat Josep Borrell said on Saturday Iran and world powers were “very close” to an agreement to revive their 2015 nuclear deal that would tighten Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting it would mitigate sanctions.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister has shown flexibility on an issue that has been a key sticking point in the nuclear talks, and Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi group launched an apparent peace initiative to end a seven-year war.
Then-US President Donald Trump canceled the pact in 2018, prompting Tehran to start violating its nuclear limits about a year later, and 11 months of talks to revive it were stalled in Vienna earlier this month, after Russia presented a new obstacle.
Russia later said it had received written guarantees that it would be able to carry out its work as a party and suggested Moscow could allow a revival.
“Now we are very close to an agreement and I hope that it will be possible,” said the European Union’s Borrell, speaking at the international conference of the Doha Forum. Borrell later told reporters he believed an agreement could be reached “within a few days.”
The failure of efforts to restore the pact could risk a regional war or result in tougher Western sanctions on Iran and continued upward pressure on already high world oil prices owing to the Ukraine conflict, analysts say.
Enrique Mora, the EU coordinator for the nuclear talks, said Friday he would travel to Tehran on Saturday to meet Iran’s chief negotiator.
There are several difficult issues. Iran wants the designation of a US foreign terrorist organization (FTO) removed from its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Saturday that lifting US sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards was among Iran’s key demands in the talks, but added that senior Guard officials said the deal was not signed because of the issue of the Revolutionary Guards Sanctions against the Guard should be halted if the agreement serves the interests of the people.
“But the Guards are among the most important institutions in the country… and despite the permission of the Guards officials, this is one of our main problems,” Amirabdollahian told state television.
The Yemeni Houthi group said Saturday it was suspending missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival, for three days. In a peace initiative, it could be a permanent commitment if the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen halts airstrikes and lifts port restrictions. Continue reading
Amirabdollahian said this week that a nuclear deal can be reached in the short term if the United States is pragmatic.
But US officials have been more cautious in assessing efforts to revive the agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Tehran has also sought guarantees that the United States will not unilaterally back out of any deal. The extent to which sanctions would be reversed is another thorny issue.
Reporting by Andrew Mills, Ghaida Ghantous, Dubai Newsroom and Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh Writing by Michael Georgy Editing by Alexander Smith, Helen Popper, William Maclean and Christina Fincher