IRNA’s correspondent is hearing that not only reaching a deal is not certain, but also a no-deal outcome is as possible as reaching a potential deal right now because some minimum demands of Iran have remained unmet.
Iran and the P4+1, with the indirect participation of the US, have been holding talks for almost one year for a possible return of Washington to the deal it left in 2018 under the presidency of Donald Trump.
The then US President Donald Trump resumed all anti-Iran sanctions lifted by the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or simply the JCPOA, and also added many more which was reciprocated by Iran in the form of reducing compliance to its nuclear commitments in the deal.
The negotiating teams in Vienna have reached agreement on many issues, over 98 percent of the discussion as said by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, but Iran’s three main requests have remained unanswered so far, leaving the final deal in hanging situation.
Iran has stated that the US should give assurances that no future administration could easily kill the deal, like what Trump did, the US’ removal of sanctions should be verified by Iran before Tehran begins to undertake its part of commitments and the IAEA should close the open cases on Iran’s nuclear activities.
Our correspondent’s understanding until the press time suggests that the remaining issues are of so high importance that they can decide the fate of the negotiations.
Here are some of the specifications of a possible deal that IRNA’s correspondent has heard through different sources.
Joint Commission of the JCPOA
Any possible deal will be in the framework of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA and will include three main axes: Iran’s demands on sanctions removal, the other party’s concerns on Iran’s nuclear activity, and how to reimplement the JCPOA.
So, any possible deal will have three annexations: 1) sanctions removal; 2) nuclear measures; 3) reimplementation plan.
Conditional implementation
The implementation of a possible deal in Vienna will be practically conditional, as it will reconfirm the possibility of invoking paragraph 26 of the JCPOA on halting the implementation of the deal in part of in whole.
This could be an essential guarantee for the survival and effectiveness of the deal, enabling Iran to quickly restore its nuclear capability in case of violation by the other parties.
Verification
Taking into account the US’ bad reputation in implementing the JCPOA, Iran has always insisted on reliability of a possible deal.
Iran’s demand in this regard is that sanctions removal by the US should be verified by Tehran at first.
The verification process is set to be done both in operational and legal areas at the same time as implementation of the Joint Commission’s decisions.
Furthermore, the US won’t be considered a member of the JCPOA until it implements all its commitments and Iran verifies removal of sanctions during a significant interval.
No trigger mechanism
The JCPOA has a dispute resolution mechanism which allow any participant to trigger it in case a participant significantly violates the deal.
This time, because of the bad reputation of the US in abusing the mechanism, participants have agreed to place a commitment in the potential Vienna deal to confront any abuse of the mechanism individually and collectively.
Sanctions removal expanse
It has been agreed that a possible deal in Vienna will ensure the removal of sanctions previously removed by the JCPOA and all sanctions inconsistent with the JCPOA.
Moreover, the other party has agreed to take on new commitments to facilitate Iran’s benefiting from sanctions removal.
Increasing Iran’s nuclear capability
Iranian negotiators have managed to safeguard Iran’s nuclear achievements gained during the years of sanctions after the US withdrew from the JCPOA.
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