Russia Sees Iran Nuclear Deal Within 'Five Minutes' As Talks Resume

As Iran’s negotiating team returned to Vienna on Tuesday for further talks, Russia said an agreement was within reach. Washington has remained more cautious.

With talks paused January 28 for “political consultations,” Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated to the Iranian (IRGC) Revolutionary Guards cited a source “close to the Iranian delegation” that Tehran had taken the necessary political decision and that the US needed to do the same.

Reiterating Iran’s demand that the US remove all sanctions imposed under ‘maximum pressure’ since 2018, when the US left the 2015 deal (the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Monday that “the latest texts obtained from the Vienna talks” failed to address “parts of our demands for the lifting of sanctions.”

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s lead negotiator and its ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the talks were “five minutes” from a finishing line. “A draft of the final document has been crafted,” he said. “There are several points there that need more work, but that document is already on the table.”

Rob Malley, the White House Iran envoy leading the American team taking part indirectly in Vienna, told the US station MSNBC Friday that negotiators had not reached agreement on central issues, such as exactly which US sanctions should be lifted and how Iran would again bring its nuclear program within JCPOA limits.