Brussels (Brussels Morning) Enrique Mora, the EU’s coordinator of indirect talks between the US and Iran, predicted on Wednesday that a nuclear deal is within reach, Reuters reported.
Unnamed EU diplomats, however, were less sure, stressing that were no guarantees that an agreement would be reached as they pointed to the many difficult issues remaining.
Indirect talks resumed on 7 May in Vienna, with Iran refusing to negotiate directly with the US on plans to return to compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The US withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018.
Agreement expected
“I am quite sure that there will be a final agreement… I think we are on the right track and we will get an agreement,” Mora noted after the fourth round of talks.
Russian envoy Mikhail Ulyanov expressed belief that an agreement would be reached and added that talks should be wrapped up next week.
US Department of State spokeswoman Jalina Porter said the negotiations so far had helped “crystallize” the steps that Iran and the US need to take.
Failure possible
Senior diplomats from France, Germany and the UK, were more cautious, noting that despite tangible progress, success was not yet guaranteed. In a joint statement, they warned of “some very difficult issues ahead”, saying “we do not underestimate the challenges that lay before us”.
Iran’s head nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi noted that “the framework and structure of the agreement has been defined and many clauses of the agreement are being negotiated.”
According to the original agreement, Iran is to curb its nuclear programme to make it more difficult to make weapons-grade fissile material, while the US, the UN and the EU are to suspend sanctions.