Iran Nuclear Talks Paused Following Russian Demands to Ease Sanctions

BRUSSELS — The talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran were paused on Friday because of recent Russian demands that sanctions imposed on it because of its war on Ukraine exclude its dealings with Iran.

European officials are concerned that the pause may turn out to be the death knell for efforts to bring the United States and Iran back into compliance with the deal, which puts important limits on Iran’s nuclear program while lifting punishing economic sanctions on Iran imposed by the United States.

In particular, a deal would bring Iranian oil back on the world market at a time when Western countries are trying to wean themselves off Russian oil and gas, hoping to reduce their dependence on Moscow while they punish it for the invasion of Ukraine. Those hopes have now been cast in limbo.

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, which chairs the talks in Vienna, confirmed the pause in a Twitter message. He said that “a final text is essentially ready and on the table,” but “a pause in Vienna talks is needed, due to external factors.”

He said he and his team would continue to try “to overcome the current situation and to close the agreement.”

The “external factors” that Mr. Borrell alluded to came when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in late February. While 11 months of negotiations in Vienna have produced the “essentially ready” text to which Mr. Borrell referred, the United States and Iran did not manage to get the deal done before it was complicated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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