Iran Mulls Response To ‘Final Text’ On Nuclear Talks

In phone call with Josep Borrell, Amir-Abdollahian reiterated that all parties involved in the talks must take serious steps toward reaching the final text of an agreement, while four days of talks in Vienna ended with a “final” text presented by the EU to all parties.

Iran insists that the text offered for renewing the 2015 nuclear deal is not a final agreement but European officials described the document to journalists as a ‘take it or leave it’ offer for both sides. American and Iranian diplomats left Vienna Monday after the European chair of talks offered a fresh and “final” text for renewing the deal.

“Iran’s views and considerations on the ideas offered by [Borrell’s deputy] Enrique Mora have been conveyed to him and all parties [to the deal] are expected to show seriousness and resolve in order to achieve the final text of the agreement,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

Expressing hope that the path to a final agreement would be paved through realism, he added that any final agreement must meet the rights and interests of the Iranian nation and guarantee sustainable and effective removal of sanctions on the Islamic Republic. 

According to IRNA, Borrell said he believes that relative progress has been made during the latest round of the talks, which he described as positive. Borrell also said he would continue efforts to bring the viewpoints of all parties closer to reach a good result.

Top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday that a final text has been tabled, as indirect talks ended between Tehran and Washington in Vienna aimed at salvaging the 2015 nuclear pact known as the JCPOA.

"What can be negotiated has been negotiated, and it’s now in a final text. However, behind every technical issue and every paragraph lies a political decision that needs to be taken in the capitals," Borrell tweeted.

"If these answers are positive, then we can sign this deal."

Former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 agreement calling it inadequate and imposed sanctions on Iran. President Joe Biden upon taking office began indirect talks with Iran to revive the accord.

However, after 16 months of negotiations Tehran and Washington have not been able to make a deal, with Iran accelerating its nuclear program, which has further complicated to talks.

The last round of talks started August 4 in Vienna and ended on Monday with no deadline set for the parties to respond the the EU text.

"As the EU said two weeks ago, the text they tabled then is the best and only basis on which to reach a deal,” the spokesperson said on Monday in response to an inquiry by Iran International’s correspondent Samira Gharaei. “Our position is clear: we stand ready to quickly conclude a deal on the basis of the EU’s proposals,” the State Department Press Office noted.

“Over the past few days, the EU Coordinator engaged in further consultations to help clarify and finetune any remaining questions regarding that text. Those consultations were completed today and we’ll now await the EU’s next steps,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said Iran repeatedly says it is prepared for a return to mutual implementation of the JCPOA, underlining that the current text “is the only possibility basis on which to do so.” Let’s see if their actions match their words."

American and Iranian diplomats left Vienna Monday after the European chair of talks offered a fresh and “final” text for renewing the deal.

European officials described the document to journalists as a ‘take it or leave it’ offer for both sides. One told Iran International that Enrique Mora, the European Union official coordinating talks, had circulated a “final text…with all the necessary points to put into action.” Another European official told AFP that the text was “not subject to further negotiations” and that a result was expected in “the next few weeks.”

European officials described the document to journalists as a ‘take it or leave it’ offer for both sides. One told Iran International that Enrique Mora, the European Union official coordinating talks in the Austrian capital since Thursday, had circulated a “final text…with all the necessary points to put into action.” Another European official told AFP that the text was “not subject to further negotiations” and that a result was expected in “the next few weeks.”

By contrast, the official IRNA news agency portrayed Mora’s text as “some ideas concerning some of the remaining issues.” IRNA said that “four rounds of talks” in Vienna had seen “relative progress in some issues,” while Mora’s proposals required “further and more complex examination” before Iran gave its “opinions and observations to the coordinator [Mora] and other parties.”

Iran’s Nour News, which is affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council, denied a report that the text would be finalized within hours.

The US State Department told Iran International that Washington will "now await the EU’s next steps" and added, "we stand ready to quickly conclude a deal on the basis of the EU’s proposals."

Discussions in Vienna began Thursday after the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in late July circulated a text designed to bridge gaps between Iran and the US over restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Nearly a year of multilateral talks in Vienna, April 2021-March 2022, and June’s bilateral United States-Iran meeting in Qatar, failed to agree which US sanctions, introduced after 2018 when Washington left the JCPOA, breached the agreement, and how Iran should return its nuclear program, developed after 2019, to JCPOA limits.

‘Swift decisions’

In a newspaper article July 26, Borrell said the time had come for “swift political decisions” as “the space for additional significant compromises has been exhausted.” But while European officials stressed Borrell’s text was a last chance to restore the JCPOA, Vienna brought days of intense discussions, political and technical, as EU diplomats scurried between the two different hotels along Vienna’s historic Ringstrasse where the American and Iranian delegations were based.

Reports emerging from the talks suggested the substantive remaining points were guarantees sought by Iran of access to world markets as required under the JCPOA, and continuing enquiries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into nuclear work carried out by Iran before 2003.

The European official speaking to Iran International reiterated the EU’s position that these enquiries, over unexplained uranium traces found at several sites, are ‘technical’ matters within the IAEA’s remit and unrelated to the JCPOA talks. Tehran argues that the agency in 2015 issued a conclusive report on Iran’s pre-2003 work and revived the matter only after allegations made by Israel.

The latest Vienna talks have essentially been between Iran and the US with the EU coordinating. Other JCPOA signatories – China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom – have sat aside while holding some bilateral meetings to renew progress.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s IAEA ambassador, tweeted Monday that “the participants in the Vienna talks now needed to decide if the draft is acceptable.” He put “the final text” in quotation marks.

Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi, a member of parliament’s foreign policy and national security committee, told the government’s official news website IRNA that it is the West that should act “rationally” in the nuclear negotiations.

“We hope that the West will understand the Islamic Republic’s message,” Rahimi a member of the hardliner majority in parliament said, “because [we] will not dismantle our nuclear installations or reduce our [uranium] enrichment.” He vowed to keep the uranium, which Iran has enriched to 20 and 60-percent, and not accept international monitoring beyond the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, without the West giving a series of guarantees.

First, the United States and Europe must provide a guarantee not to leave the nuclear deal. They must also guarantee that oil export revenues reach the Iranian government.

Iran has been emphasizing the issue of a guarantee by the US to stay in a new nuclear agreement even before multilateral talks started in April 2021. Tehran’s argument is that former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and Iran needs assurance that this will not happen again.

However, no US president can provide such a guarantee if an agreement is not a formal treaty, which would need Senate ratification – an almost impossible task with the highly controversial JCPOA.

Iranian officials have also demanded a host of other guarantees, including a pledge by the West that Iran would be able to attract foreign investments if it agrees to limit its nuclear program. The United States has promised to lift its oil export and banking sanctions, but no one can guarantee if Iran would receive foreign investments.

Rahimi told IRNA that the West does not realize that the world has changed and countries like China or Iran will not carry out their orders. “Iran, in terms of military, political and economic power is not a weak state to be subservient to the West, but Westerners look at the world as though it is still the 18th or 19th centuries…”

The Wall Street Journal on Sunday cited the European Union's coordinator of the talks, Enrique Mora, as saying the negotiations to restore the JCPOA are close to completion, but it remained unclear whether Tehran will accept the final deal. The text of a deal could be closed in the coming hours, Mora had said. An unnamed Iranian foreign ministry official denied the report.

“Given the continuation of discussions on some remaining important issues, we’re not yet at a stage to finalize the text. “We believe that Vienna Talks can be concluded soon provided that the other party makes an appropriate decision. But we are not at that stage yet,” IRNA quoted the official as saying.

After sixteen months of negotiations, diplomats gathered in Vienna last week for what some said was a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement. Apparently, Iran insists on receiving guarantees and also demands that an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency of its past secret nuclear work be shelved.

Rahimi also said that despite its capabilities in enriching uranium, Tehran is ready for talks to resolve the issue but “the problem Iran has with Western countries is the degree of their understanding of global realities.”