Iran - Q&A - (15 October 2021)

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Q: On Wednesday, you said that EU Coordinator Mora’s visit to Tehran was coming at a critical moment for the future of the nuclear agreement. Since then, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has said that discussions would resume in two weeks in Brussels “to seek practical solutions to the current deadlock in the Vienna talks.” That doesn’t point to an immediate return to Vienna, as several countries including France have been requesting for months. Do you believe that Iran is negotiating in good faith or stalling for time, given that the status quo has continued on without consequences?

A: It has been nearly four months now that the Vienna talks on the return to the JCPoA by Iran and the United States have been suspended at Iran’s request. France, its E3 partners, its other JCPoA partners and the United States unanimously call on Iran to return to the talks in Vienna without delay in order to swiftly conclude negotiations on Iran’s return to its commitments under the JCPoA and the U.S.’s return to the Plan of Action.

We have made it clear that time is the enemy of a potential agreement as Iran is taking advantage of the delay to step up its nuclear violations, making the return to the JCPoA increasingly uncertain. The discussions in Vienna, on which the various delegations have been working conscientiously and resolutely for three months, had moved us closer to concluding an agreement that benefited all the parties. Along with the other JCPoA participants and the United States, we are prepared to resume the negotiations where they left off in June in order to bring them to a speedy conclusion. Iran must demonstrate through its actions that it shares the same desire to return to the negotiating table in Vienna and to conclude an agreement on resuming its respect for the JCPoA as quickly as possible.

Together with our partners, we also remain deeply concerned that Iran abide by its obligations toward the IAEA, as well as the commitments it itself undertook toward the Agency just a month ago.

Iran must urgently resume its full and entire cooperation with the IAEA and end all the activities of unprecedented gravity that it is pursuing in violation of the JCPoA.