Iran says progress made to reach new Iranian nuclear agreement

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Iran announced Wednesday that there has been progress in the multinational talks on renewing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal, and that negotiations had reached a “critical” stage, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. This sentiment has been echoed by the US, France and Germany, which are key parties to the talks.

The JCPOA had offered the lifting of international sanctions on Iran in exchange for the Islamic regime’s assurance that it would not enrich uranium beyond a specified limit for the purposes of making a nuclear weapon. The deal fell through when the Trump administration in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the US from the treaty and reimposed sanctions; Iran’s response was to enrich uranium to dangerously high levels that far exceeded its commitments under the treaty.

Together with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, the US Biden administration began talks with Iran in Vienna last year in order to negotiate a return to some form of the deal.

At a press conference Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the talks had “reached a critical and important stage,” TOI reports. Amir-Abdollahian added: “We hope that some sensitive and important issues remaining in the negotiations will be resolved in the coming days with realism from the Western side.”

Agreeing that progress had been made in reaching an agreement, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on February 18 that there “was the chance to reach an agreement that will allow sanctions to be lifted.” However, he said the talks could yet fall through: this was a “moment of truth” for Iran.

In a similar statement to the French Senate, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian explained on February 16: “We need political decisions from the Iranians. They have a very clear choice.”

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