Russia's Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Wednesday he held a meeting with US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Mally.
The eighth round of talks on restoring the nuclear deal with Iran began in the Austrian capital on Monday. Negotiators are assuming that an agreement is weeks, not months, away.
"Met with US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley today. Close consultations and coordination between the Russian and US delegations during the Vienna talks are an important prerequisite for progress on restoring the JCPOA," Ulyanov wrote on Twitter.
According to Ulyanov, negotiators should focus on reaching an agreement by early February. Ulyanov said earlier that all negotiators do not want to lose time and are focused on restoring the JCPOA as soon as possible.
The previous, seventh round of talks in Vienna on resumption of the JCPOA on Iranian nuclear program started at the end of November. The main topic of the talks was the removal of US sanctions against Tehran. On December 17, it was announced that the seventh round of talks was over. The parties reached agreement on two drafts of the agreement, in which the European side included Iran's position.
In 2015, Britain, Germany, China, Russia, the US, France and Iran signed the JCPOA. The deal involved lifting sanctions in exchange for limiting Iran's nuclear program to guarantee its peaceful nature. In May 2018, then US President Donald Trump decided to unilaterally withdraw and reinstate harsh sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased reduction of its commitments under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges, and uranium enrichment levels.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: AP / TASS
Based on materials from TASS