EU, Russia and Iran: resumption of nuclear talks
EU delegates are optimistic
Gabriel Thomas (GT)May 8, 2025
Iranian and Russian diplomats were optimistic when Iran and the world powers held their first talks in five months on Monday in an attempt to save the 2015 nuclear deal, despite Tehran's public stance, which Westerns believe Forces wouldn't work.
According to diplomats, time is running out for a revival of the deal, which then-US President Donald Trump terminated in 2018, angered Iran and dismayed the other powers involved - Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
The European Union, Iran and Russia delegates were optimistic after the new round began with a meeting of the remaining parties excluding the United States, which Iran has refused to meet in person.
"Enrique Mora, the EU official who chairs the talks, said after the meeting - the seventh round of talks to revive the deal that Iran signed its controversial uranium enrichment program in return for lifting US, EU and US economic sanctions United Nations restricted -: "I have an extremely positive feeling about what I saw today.
Mora told reporters that the new Iranian delegation had stuck with its call for all sanctions to be lifted. But he also indicated that Tehran had not flatly rejected the results of the previous six rounds of talks, which took place between April and June.
"They have accepted that the work done in the first six rounds is a good basis for our future work," he said. "We will of course include the new political sensibilities of the new Iranian government.
The Russian envoy during the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) that they had "got off to a good start". When asked if he was optimistic, Iranian chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani told reporters: "Yes, I am."
However, it was not clear whether Iran had agreed to resume talks where they left off in June - as requested by Western powers - or whether the optimism was justified.
One European diplomat adopted a pessimistic tone, saying that the Iranians held their positions and sometimes tightened them, which was not encouraging.
The diplomat said things would become clearer with detailed talks on sanctions on Tuesday and nuclear issues on Wednesday.
The Vienna meeting ended a hiatus sparked by the June election of Ebrahim Raisi, an anti-Western hardliner. The talks are indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington, with other officials commuting between the two countries.
The negotiating team in Tehran has made demands which, in the opinion of Western diplomats, are viewed by American and European diplomats as unrealistic.
Iran has taken an uncompromising position by calling for the lifting of all sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union since 2017, including those unrelated to its nuclear program, in a verifiable process.
Bagheri Kani also said Washington and its Western allies should guarantee that no new sanctions would be imposed in the future.
"All participants in the meeting accepted Iran's request that the situation of the illegal and unjust US sanctions should be clarified first and then (we) discuss and decide on other issues," he told reporters.
There was no immediate comment from the great powers on Bagheri Kani's remarks on the order of the subjects.
During a telephone conversation, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Iranian President Raisi to make a constructive contribution "to facilitate a quick return to the agreement and meet Iran's obligations to the United Nations nuclear regulatory agency, according to Macron's office.
Iran's conflicts with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversees its nuclear program, have deepened.
While Iran has pushed ahead with its uranium enrichment process, the agency's inspectors claim they have been treated roughly and denied access to install surveillance cameras in a location it deems essential to the revitalization of the deal.
Since Trump got the United States out of the deal, Iran has violated many of its restrictions designed to increase the time it would take to produce enough fissile material for an atomic bomb. Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium for civil purposes.
