EU: 'sense of urgency' over Iran nuclear deal talks in Vienna

Negotiations resume after five-month hiatus triggered by Iranian presidential elections

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  Russian contractors work at the Bushehr nuclear reactor site in 2007. The plant opened four years later. Bloomberg

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  An Iranian technician at the International Atomic Energy Agency inspects the country's Isfahan plant in 2007. Tehran is no longer co-operating with the agency at nuclear sites across the country. EPA

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  Workers wait to begin constructing a second reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2019. AFP

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  A metal-encased rod with 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel is inserted into a reactor in Tehran in 2012. AFP

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  Fomer Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the country's Atomic Energy Organisation chief Ali Akbar Salehi speak at the Bushehr nuclear site in 2015. AFP

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  Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant has been restarted. EPA

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  Mehdi Abrichamtchi, chairman of the Peace and Security Committee at the National Council of Resistance of Iran, shows journalists the location of a secret nuclear site in Iran in 2013. AFP

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  Workers prepare to begin the construction of a second reactor at the Bushehr site. AFP

A senior EU official said there is a “sense of urgency” at talks in Vienna focused on salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal Iran agreed to with world powers, as Tehran reiterated there could be no return to the accord until US sanctions were removed.

Enrique Mora, who is convening the negotiations in the Austrian capital after a five-month hiatus, said it was important that the rapidly expanding Iranian nuclear programme was put swiftly back under the eye of independent watchdogs.

“There is a sense of urgency in putting the Iranian nuclear programme under the transparent monitoring of the international community,” Mr Mora said after the first day of talks.

Six rounds of talks in Vienna failed to make significant headway earlier this year and were paused amid the Iranian presidential elections that brought hardliner Ebrahim Raisi to power.

The 2015 nuclear deal has effectively been in tatters since 2018, when former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew and reimposed heavy sanctions on Iran. The latter has responded by repeatedly breaking the terms of the accord it agreed upon with the US, EU, China, Russia, France and the UK.

Iran maintains the aims of its atomic programme are peaceful.

The 2015 agreement stipulated that Iran would limit the development of its nuclear capabilities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Mr Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has said he wants a return to the deal, but the US insists Iran must return to compliance first.

Further complicating matters, nuclear inspectors remain unable to fully monitor Iran's programme after Tehran limited their access. A trip to Iran last week by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, failed to make any progress on that issue.

Tehran has refused to back down from its demands, which partly incorporate the dropping of all US and EU sanctions imposed since 2017, including those unrelated to Iran's nuclear programme.

“The United States still fails to properly understand the fact that there is no way to return to the deal without a verifiable and effective lifting of all sanctions,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said shortly after the talks resumed.

“The return of the US to the nuclear deal would be meaningless without guarantees to prevent the recurrence of the bitter experience of the past,” he said.

“This opportunity is not a window that can remain open forever.”

Mr Mora said he felt “extremely positive” after the first day of the resumed talks, but stressed the importance of bringing the deal back to life and ending the “suffering” of the Iranian people, a likely reference to the impact of the economic sanctions.

Speaking beforehand, Russia’s envoy to the talks said Moscow was “cautiously optimistic” despite being aware of the problems on the table.

Mikhail Ulyanov said “we have no reasonable and acceptable alternative to a successful conclusion of the talks” on the nuclear deal.

Ali Bagheri, the deputy foreign minister, is leading the Iranian delegation, which was appointed by Mr Raisi and is believed to comprise some 40 diplomats and government officials. Mr Bagheri said he felt optimistic after the meetings on Monday.

In an op-ed for The Financial Times on Sunday, Mr Bagheri wrote: “We should be offered a clear and transparent mechanism to ensure that sanctions will be removed. For what other conceivable reason would we compromise regarding Iran’s technological advances and nationally precious domestic nuclear programme?”

Said Khatibzadeh, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, insisted Iran’s delegation “is in Vienna with a firm determination to reach an agreement and is looking forward to fruitful talks”.

“The government has shown its willingness and seriousness by sending a quality team known to all. If the other side shows the same willingness, we will be on the right track to reach an agreement.”

The remaining signatories to the deal will convene at a luxury hotel in Vienna.

A US delegation headed by the administration's special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, is participating indirectly in the talks, with diplomats from the other countries acting as go-betweens.

“If the United States comes to Vienna with the determination to resolve the deadlock and other issues that kept us from reaching an agreement in previous rounds and enter the talks from that point, definitely the talks will move forward in an easy path,” said Mr Khatibzadeh.

“If the US still wants to stick to its unilateralism in the negotiations, the Islamic Republic will have plenty of choices to make as well.”

He also accused certain European countries at the talks of lacking “the necessary will to lift the sanctions”.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid have jointly pledged to work “night and day” to stop Iran from making a nuclear bomb.

The Vienna talks were convened by senior EU foreign affairs official Enrique Mora, who said “intense preparatory work” was under way before the talks.

Mr Malley said that Washington would be ready to ramp up pressure on Tehran if talks collapse.

“If Iran thinks it can use this time to build more leverage and then come back and say they want something better, it simply won't work. We and our partners won't go for it.”