All participants in the Vienna talks on restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program, including the United States and Iran, are determined to move forward on resolving the issue without unnecessary delays. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna, said this in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published on Tuesday.
According to him, Russia, like its JCPOA colleagues, is focused on having the negotiations completed "in early June, or at least by mid-June, so that the presidential elections in Iran do not create any problems around the negotiation process." "Whether this will work out, life will show. Basically, the mood of all the delegations, including the US and Iranian ones, is good - there is a desire, it seems to us, to move forward without unnecessary delays. On May 25, the fifth round will begin and we hope it will be the final round, which will result in an agreement on the JCPOA," Ulyanov said.
He believes it would be important to finalize negotiations before Iran's June 18 election because "a new space of political uncertainty" could open up behind it, which would make a life for negotiators much more difficult.
Participants in the talks, which have been underway since early April in a face-to-face format in Vienna, have noted steady progress. Experts in three working groups are working on the text of a future agreement to resume the JCPOA: lifting Washington's sanctions on Tehran (and a future US return to the deal) and fulfilling Iran's nuclear obligations.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: viennamission.mid.ru
Based on materials from TASS