EU’s Mora to visit Iran for talks on JCPOA revival

EU deputy foreign policy chief Enrique Mora, who also acts as the coordinator for the Vienna talks, is going to travel to Iran for what he called “closing the remaining gaps” in the negotiations on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, Report informs referring to Tasnim News Agency.

In a post on his Twitter account on Friday, Mora said he will hold talks with Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Baqeri in Tehran on Saturday as part of the efforts towards “closing the remaining gaps” in the talks in the Austrian capital.

“Travelling to Tehran tomorrow to meet Bagheri Kani. Working on closing the remaining gaps in the Vienna Talks on the JCPOA. We must conclude this negotiation. Much is at stake,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, the Vienna talks, meant to resurrect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), were paused for an undetermined period of time despite reports suggesting that they were in the “final stages.”

The United States, which is blamed for the current stalemate, is reluctant to take confidence-building measures due to its erroneous bias, procrastination in decision-making and excessive demands, Press TV reported.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said the US needs to remove all illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic in a verifiable manner and offer guarantees that a new US administration will not breach the JCPOA again before it can rejoin the deal.

Former US president Donald Trump unilaterally left the JCPOA in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions that the deal had lifted. He also placed additional sanctions on Iran under other pretexts not related to the nuclear case as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign.