Iran calls for guarantees before decision on EU's final nuclear deal proposal

Assurances sought over bloc’s offer, which is under official review in Tehran

The EU has lodged a 'final' proposal to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. EPA

The European Union's bid to revive the 2015 nuclear deal could be "acceptable if it provides assurances" on crucial demands made by Iran, state news agency Irna reported on Friday.

An Iranian diplomat told the agency Tehran was reviewing the EU's "final" proposal, put forward on Monday, after four days of indirect talks between the US and Iran in Vienna.

“Proposals by the EU can be acceptable if they provide Iran with assurance on the issues of safeguards, sanctions and guarantees,” the unnamed diplomat said.

A senior EU official said he expected a final decision within "very few weeks”. No more changes can be made to the text, which has been the subject of negotiations for 15 months, he said.

Iran wanted guarantees that no US president would renege on the deal if it were revived, as Donald Trump did in 2018 when he reimposed harsh US sanctions on Iran.

The US has expressed its readiness to restore the deal on the basis of the EU proposals.

But President Joe Biden could be unable to provide the assurances sought by Iran as the deal is a political understanding, rather than a legally binding treaty.

Iran to put forward 'additional views'

Iranian officials said they would convey their "additional views and considerations" to the EU, which is co-ordinating the talks, after consultations in Tehran.

The 2015 pact seemed to be nearing revival in March.

But 11 months of indirect talks between Tehran and the Biden administration in Vienna were scuppered when Iran insisted the US remove its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps from the list of designated foreign terrorist groups.

On Wednesday, the US charged a Revolutionary Guards member with plotting to murder John Bolton, a national security adviser to Mr Trump, although Washington said it did not believe the charges should affect the nuclear talks with Tehran.

Under the 2015 agreement, Iran curbed its disputed uranium enrichment programme, a possible pathway to nuclear weapons, in return for relief from US, EU and UN sanctions. Iran said it wanted nuclear power only for peaceful purposes.

In pictures — Iran's plots against foreign officials and dissidents

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  Relatives carry the body of Hassan Al Qahtani outside the Grand Mosque in Riyadh in May 2011. The Saudi diplomat was shot dead in Karachi by a man believed to have been linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force. Reuters

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  Iran has been attempting to kill or capture former US president Donald Trump after he ordered the air strike that killed the IRGC's Quds Force commander, Qassem Suleimani, in January 2020. AP

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  Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo is believed to have been Iran's second target, after former national security adviser John Bolton, marked for assassination. AP

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  Gen Kenneth McKenzie, former commander of the US Central Command, has been high on Iran's list of people to be killed in retribution following Suleimani's death. AFP

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  Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, was shot dead in July 1989 by suspected Iranian agents in Vienna. Getty

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  Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Iranian prime minister under the Shah, was killed at his home in August 1991 by assassins believed to have been sent by Tehran. AFP

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  Iranian poet and entertainer Fereydoun Farrokhzad's death has never been solved but German police believe he was killed by Iranian operatives.