Iranian negotiators presented draft proposals for how to overcome the biggest hurdles to reviving their 2015 nuclear accord, texts that will determine whether the sides see the basis for a deal.
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Ali Bagheri Kani, chief nuclear negotiator, told Iran s state television that he presented European diplomats with a set of amendments to existing draft agreements on the removal of U.S. sanctions and how Iran intends to roll back advances in its atomic activities.
Bagheri Kani said the drafts were submitted on Wednesday night to European diplomats and were a demonstration of our seriousness, and he expects to hear feedback on Thursday, including with European Union envoy Enrique Mora.
The negotiations in Vienna are the first since the election of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi in June, with U.S. officials pessimistic about reaching an agreement with his hardline administration.
There were disagreements over the U.S. sanctions removal and how Tehran scales back its nuclear program as major sticking points in the talks that were stalled for five months before they restarted in the Austrian capital on Monday.
Oil traders are watching closely. Since the Pandemic lockdowns began to calm, a new deal that the Trump administration abandoned in 2018 will allow OPEC-member Iran to increase oil exports and re-enter a market that has been tightly supplied.
As the diplomacy grinds on, developments in Iran are raising the stakes.
On Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been trying to get access to a site in the outskirts of Tehran that is involved in the production of centrifuges, said that the Islamic Republic had escalated its atomic work by feeding a line of advanced centrifuges to produce uranium enriched to 20% purity at its plant in Fordow.
On Thursday, Bagheri Kani will meet IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
European diplomats are keen to get a breakthrough in an effort to ease a standoff that destabilized the Persian Gulf and could weaken post-Cold War efforts to limit nuclear proliferation.
Iran has had several meetings with the European Union on lifting sanctions and nuclear compliance. These so-called working groups are set to continue on Thursday, according to Tasnim. The Biden administration has said it can't tie the hands of successor governments, so Iran wants the U.S. to rule out any future exit from the deal.
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