US: A nuclear deal with Iran is 'at hand'
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While nuclear talks resume in Vienna on Tuesday, the US emphasizes the importance of completing the agreement as soon as possible, given Tehran's rapid development of nuclear capabilities.
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US: A nuclear deal with Iran is 'at hand'.
The US announced that an agreement in the ongoing Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna is "on the verge of being reached."
"A deal that addresses all sides' core concerns is in sight, but if it is not reached in the coming weeks, Iran's ongoing nuclear advances will make it impossible for us to return to the JCPOA," a US State Department spokesperson said on Monday.
In turn, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said that the proposals that will be presented by "the United States in Vienna will determine when we can reach an agreement."
"We have made significant progress in various areas of the Vienna negotiations," including on guarantees that Iran is seeking, whereby a new US administration would not breach the deal once again, Khatibzadeh told reporters.
Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stressed that some of his country's demands regarding sanctions "were not taken good care of" during the Vienna negotiations, noting that reaching a "good agreement depends on the West's behavior."
Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, announced on Monday that a draft final document on restoring the Iranian nuclear agreement has been drawn up, and negotiations can be concluded in a short time.
Talks will resume in Vienna today, after negotiators in recent weeks signaled progress in efforts to revive a 2015 accord aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb, a goal Tehran has consistently denied it seeks.
It is noteworthy that several rounds of negotiations took place in Vienna recently to revive the agreement on Iran's nuclear program signed in 2015, between Tehran on the one hand and the P5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) on the other hand, which collapsed after the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in May 2018.
