Outstanding Issues in Vienna Talks Include Iran’s Red Lines: MP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A number of outstanding issues, without settlement of which an ultimate deal in the Vienna talks on the revival of the JCPOA will be elusive, are among the red lines of Iran, the spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Abolfazl Amoee said the Vienna negotiations for saving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and lifting the sanctions on Iran have made advances to a great extent.
“An initial text has been drafted, which is close to an agreement, but a series of issues are still remaining. As long as these issues are not resolved, we should not expect a deal to be made,” the lawmaker added.
Amoee said although solutions have been reached to many issues, a number of subjects are still outstanding, which are among Iran’s red lines.
The demands of Iran regarding those red lines have not been met so far, he stated, stressing that Tehran remains steadfast in preventing its red lines from being crossed.
Iran and the remaining participants to the JCPOA have been holding talks in Vienna since April last year with the aim of reviving the deal by bringing the US into full compliance.
The US left the JCPOA in May 2018 under former president Donald Trump. The Vienna talks began on a promise by Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, to rejoin the deal and repeal the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Biden, however, has so far failed to undo Trump’s own undoing of Barack Obama’s Iran policy, which led to the JCPOA in June 2015.
The eighth round of the Vienna talks began on December 27 with a focus on the removal of all sanctions that the United States had imposed on Iran after its unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA. The US is not allowed to directly attend the talks due to its pullout in 2018 from the deal with Iran.