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Iran Deal Talks Possible This Week After 'Reasonable' Proposal

Iran sent a “reasonable” response to the European Union’s latest proposal for saving the 2015 nuclear accord.

Iran Deal Talks Possible This Week After 'Reasonable' Proposal

Iran sent a “reasonable” response to the European Union’s latest proposal for saving the 2015 nuclear accord and diplomats might meet this week in Vienna to discuss the next steps, according to the bloc’s foreign-policy chief.

But Josep Borrell told reporters in Santander, Spain, that the US hadn’t yet submitted its answer to the Iranian positions, which were handed to Brussels on Aug. 15.    

World powers have spent almost 18 months trying a broker an agreement that would reinstate strict limits on Iran’s atomic activity in exchange for the easing of US sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s economy, including its oil exports. 

“I hope that this response allows us to end the negotiations,” Borrell said of the anticipated comments from Washington, without elaborating on the remaining gaps that had to be bridged. “That’s my hope, but I cannot assure you that this will happen.” 

US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with the main European countries involved in the nuclear talks -- Germany, France and the UK -- on the latest attempt to salvage the accord. 

The quartet discussed “ongoing negotiations” toward a deal, including “the need to strengthen support for partners in the Middle East region,” according to a US summary of the call released Sunday.

Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, and Biden had made restoring it a top foreign-policy priority. 

But the negotiations have been bedeviled by Iran’s continued nuclear advances, the arrival of a more hardline government in the summer of 2021 and disagreements over what to do about the many non-nuclear sanctions that the Trump administration imposed during its waning days in office.

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