Negotiations over Iran's nuclear program are set to continue next week as signs indicate that the sides are poised to close in on a compromise, potentially setting the stage for meetings of top diplomats from Tehran and Washington.
Officials will reconvene Wednesday after days of technical nuclear talks in Vienna. While negotiators this week didn't ultimately possess the authority to make decisions needed to resuscitate the 2015 agreement, which capped Iranian nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief, they've transmitted signals that diplomacy is moving in the right direction.
Iran is willing "to continue serious discussions" as long as the other side is, too, its lead envoy, Abbas Araghchi, said in a statement. Other participants, including Russian International Atomic Energy Agency ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov, said progress was made. Enrique Mora, the European Union diplomat who convened the meeting, said next week's talks would be even more intensive.
"In my opinion, these negotiations are moving forward, very constructive and useful, but it is too early to say whether we are moving forward in a positive direction," Araghchi told Iran's Press TV on Friday. "The atmosphere of the meetings are constructive, but we are still far from the point where we can hope for a positive trend, although we are not disappointed."
There have been no direct contacts between Iranian and U.S. envoys, but Iran said discussions have moved on to how to remove American sanctions imposed since then-President Donald Trump abandoned the accord. That's probably possible only if Tehran dials back its enrichment to within the limits set six years ago.
"It seems the U.S. and Iran have broad understandings on a return to the deal," said Tariq Rauf, the atomic energy agency's former top policy adviser. "But final compromises and agreement would require ministerial-level engagement."
The meetings Friday included China, the European Union, Russia and the U.K. Direct future engagement by ministers including Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken would be tangible evidence that talks have advanced.
The Eurasia Group sees a rising possibility that the nuclear deal could be revived before the third quarter based on the "cautiously positive momentum in the early discussions," analyst Henry Rome wrote in a note.
Iran's chief negotiator said Thursday that the sides were focusing on removing U.S. sanctions in a single step, in a statement of progress that didn't specify what Tehran was offering in return.
"We are negotiating the removal of sanctions all at once, specifying which sanctions and how, their details. All of these have to be precisely clarified," Araghchi said.
As the talks opened, China's representative in Vienna, Wang Qun, backed the Iranian stance. "We, in China, have a saying to the effect that the one who ties the knot should be the one to undo it," he said.
The U.S. has so far ruled out unilaterally removing sanctions in order to get Iran to return to enrichment parameters set by the 2015 agreement. The Islamic Republic says Washington must move first, as it was the party that abrogated the deal.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to respond directly to the Iranian claim but said the Biden administration's position remains that the U.S. will remove sanctions only after Iran returns to compliance with the nuclear deal. He said the response "would include lifting sanctions that are inconsistent" with the nuclear accord but declined to say whether that would encompass removing sanctions tied to what the U.S. considers Iran's support of terrorism.
At the same time, Price said the discussions had made progress.
Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Tirone and Yasna Haghdoost of Bloomberg News (WPNS); and by David Rising and Amir Vahdat of The Associated Press.