European Diplomat: Agreement ‘Next Week’ On Iran Nuclear Deal

A European diplomat told Iran International Saturday that agreement on restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal would be announced next week, with almost all issues now resolved.

Others were not so sure. Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the 58th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in southern Germany on Saturday that while all elements for concluding negotiations “are on the table…it’s the case that if we don’t succeed very quickly in this, the negotiations threaten to fail.”

Scholz said talks were at “the moment of truth” and that “the Iranian leadership now has a choice.”

In Tehran, the official news agency IRNA reported foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that further clarifications were needed before any agreement in Vienna on the reviving the 2015 agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Scholz told participants at the annual security conference that the Vienna talks had come a long way over ten months. He criticized Tehran for increasing the level to which it enriches uranium and for restricting access of United Nations inspectors.

Iran began extending its nuclear program in 2019, a year after United States President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA. Last year Tehran reached enrichment of 60 percent, far above the JCPOA cap of 3.67 percent. It also last year reduced UN inspectors’ access to that required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.