April 17th the members of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) committee met again in Austria, with high-level representatives from Iran, China, Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom participating in the talks.
Al Jazeera reported on April 18 that after the round of talks, all parties present said that the Iran nuclear agreement negotiations are making progress.
Reported that the European side is currently between Iran and the United States shuttle mediation, the parties have reached consensus on some issues, but there are still some key differences need to be negotiated in the next talks.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, who was involved in the talks, said a “new understanding” was emerging, thanks to the work of the two working groups, which are responsible for identifying what sanctions the US needs to lift and what nuclear-related measures Iran needs to take. Now that the parties have a common view of the ultimate goal, the talks can now move to the “text consultation stage” and iran is already working on drafting a draft text on the lifting of sanctions and nuclear-related measures, which will lay the groundwork for an agreement between the final parties, Aragazi said.
Enrique Mora, deputy secretary-general of the European Union’s Foreign Operations Agency, tweeted after the talks that progress had been made and that while there was still work to be done, everyone was committed to the goal of getting the US back into the agreement.
According to the official website of the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna on April 17, Ambassador Wang Qun, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations in Vienna, who is participating in the new round of the Iran-Nuclear Comprehensive Agreement, said that China is encouraged by the constructive work carried out during the two days when the work of the Board is back on track.
Wang said China believes that the current Board should continue to focus on the substantive work of sanctions lifting through the nuclear field and the sanctions lifting working group, as well as the “close contact” process with the United States, especially the immediate start of negotiations on the text of specific arrangements for the lifting of sanctions. All U.S. sanctions, whether on Iran or on third-party “long-arm jurisdiction” sanctions, including on Chinese businesses and individuals, must be lifted immediately.
Wang said China will continue to work with relevant parties to push for early and tangible results in the resumption of U.S.-Iranian compliance talks.
