The US administration informally considers the end of January-the beginning of February as the deadline for negotiations
Washington. January 19. INTERFAX - Vienna negotiations on the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program (JCPOA) have reached the stage closest to both the successful completion of consultations and their complete failure, the Axios portal reports, citing an unnamed senior representative of the US authorities associated with the negotiations.
"We are closer than ever to an agreement, but also closer than ever to the failure of negotiations," the source said.
"We are ready and willing to conclude a deal soon. But we are also prepared and expect the possibility of failure, which probably promises a complete termination of the JCPOA," he explained.
According to him, there is some progress in the negotiations in Vienna, but too little. The source noted that now Iran either needs to help speed up the negotiations or slow down the development of its nuclear program to gain time for dialogue. He also told Axios that the United States and other parties have made it clear to Iran that if more time is needed for diplomacy, then Tehran needs to reduce the pace of development of its nuclear program.
The source clarified that negotiations in the current way cannot continue further. At the same time, all forces are focused on restoring the JCPOA, and not on reaching a temporary deal, he added.
In turn, Axios quotes the words of an unnamed European diplomat, according to which the differences remain the same - about what steps Iran should take to limit the development of its program, what sanctions should be lifted from Iran; what guarantees will be that the United States, after the possible lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions in the future, will not restore sanctions against this country again.
According to Axios, the US administration informally considers the end of January or the beginning of February as the deadline for negotiations around the JCPOA, believing that then the development of Iran's nuclear program will make the current conditions of the JCPOA ineffective.
In 2015, Iran and the "six" countries - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany - concluded the JCPOA - a nuclear agreement, according to which Tehran should limit the development of its nuclear program exclusively for peaceful purposes. Special parameters were agreed upon, including the level of uranium enrichment, access to Iranian nuclear facilities by IAEA inspectors in exchange for a step-by-step lifting of sanctions. In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and resumed anti-Iranian sanctions, which prompted Tehran to gradually abandon compliance with some of the terms of the deal.