The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that a delegation headed by chief negotiator Ali Bagheri will head to Vienna in the coming hours in order to complete discussions on reviving the nuclear agreement, which have been suspended for months. This comes days after Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign minister who is coordinating the talks to revive the agreement, presented a draft proposal to Tehran and Washington in an attempt to conclude a settlement that would reactivate the understanding from which the United States withdrew in 2018. "Within the framework of the policy of lifting the unjust sanctions against our country, the negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Iran headed by Ali Bagheri (...) will head to Vienna within hours," ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement. The agreement concluded in 2015 between Tehran and Washington, Paris, London, Berlin, Moscow and Beijing allowed the lifting of sanctions on the Islamic Republic in return for reducing its nuclear activities and ensuring the peace of its program. However, the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018, during the era of its former president, Donald Trump, re-imposing harsh economic sanctions on Iran, which responded by gradually retreating from most of its obligations under it. Iran and the powers affiliated with the agreement began discussions to revive it in April 2021 in Vienna, with the indirect participation of the United States and facilitated by the European Union. Despite the achievement of significant progress in the negotiations, the talks were suspended last March, with points of disagreement remaining between Tehran and Washington, on which those concerned have not yet been able to bridge the gap. In late June, the two sides held indirect talks in Doha with the facilitation of the European Union, which ended without achieving a breakthrough. Borrell revealed on July 26 that he had submitted a draft understanding to Tehran and Washington. He wrote in an article published in the "Financial Times" newspaper that his proposal "is not a perfect agreement", but "it represents the best agreement that I consider possible, as a mediator in the negotiations," noting that it "addresses all the basic elements and includes settlements that all parties obtained with difficulty."

AFP