World powers meeting in Vienna with Iran to discuss reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement have set up an expert group to plan the sequencing of lifting United States sanctions with Iranian steps to bring the atomic program back within limits set by the deal, the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

This would be a third expert group, working to coordinate two others working separately on US sanctions and the Iranian nuclear program. The move was announced by Enrique Mora, the European External Action Service Deputy Secretary General and confirmed in a tweet from Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its representative at the talks. IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, reported the group would “define the practical steps for the lifting of sanctions and the return of the US to the deal." 

Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the IAEA, suggested back in December a sequencing plan was needed, even before President Joe Biden took office with a commitment to revive the JCPOA, from which his predecessor Donal Trump withdrew in 2018 before imposing draconian sanctions on Iran.

Mora has chaired of the JCPOA Joint Commission, which set up the expert groups and has representatives from remaining JCPOA signatories - China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and the United Kingdom. Aside from formal meetings of the Joint Commission, there is a US States delegation in Vienna in a separate hotel.

Ulyanov also tweeted that the leading diplomats in Vienna would be taking a break "to do homework and consult with the capitals,” presumably as the expert groups continued working.

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian deputy foreign minister leading his country’s delegation, said Tuesday after the Joint Commission meeting that Iran would leave the negotiations if faced by "excessive demands, waste of time or irrational bargaining."  In Tehran, government spokesman Ali Rabiei said Iran was in no rush "to reclaim our obvious rights in the agreement" and would make no concessions beyond the JCPOA framework.

Rabiei said it was possible in the short term to lift all US sanctions violating the JCPOA and thereby revive the agreement. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that all sanctions "imposed, re-imposed, or relabeled" since Trump took office should lifted before Washington could rejoin the JCPOA.

US officials in turn have expressed willingness to lift all sanctions ruled out by the JCPOA. But some measure imposed by Trump after 2018, while openly designed to complicate attempts to revive the agreement, were ostensibly on grounds of ‘terrorism’ or human rights. Washington has also said it expects Iran – before sanctions are lifted – to reverse all moves taken since 2019 in expanding its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits. Tehran last week, after the probable Israeli April 10 attack on the Natanz nuclear facility, announced it would enrich uranium enrichment to 60 percent, far above the JCPOA cap of 3.67 percent and significantly loser to 90 percent ‘weapons grade.’