Delegates at new round of Iran nuclear talks strike hopeful note

Progress has been made in Vienna, but both sides still need to make ‘difficult decisions’ if an agreement is to be reached.

Aljazeera

By Maziar Motamedi

Tehran, Iran – The eighth and possibly final round of talks in Vienna to restore Iran’s landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers has commenced on a cautiously hopeful note.

A Joint Commission meeting of the remaining participants of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the nuclear deal is formally known, concluded on Monday night in the Austrian capital, with a slew of bilateral and trilateral meetings between the different delegations.

There was, however, no direct meeting between Iranian and United States’ representatives as Tehran refuses to talk directly with Washington after the US in 2018 unilaterally abandoned the accord.

Following the main meeting at the Palais Coburg, Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said the delegations agreed that “good progress” was made during the seventh round that ended 10 days earlier, and there is now a “suitable framework” to take the talks forward.