The sixth round of Vienna nuclear talks, aimed at reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), ended more than a week ago with some key issues still hanging in the balance. At the end of the sixth round, Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi underlined the need for the parties involved in the talks to make “serious decisions” in order to get Iran and the U.S. back to full compliance with the tattered nuclear deal.

He said serious decisions need to be made in the capitals of the countries which are parties to the talks in order to resolve key outstanding issues, according to an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement issued at the end of the latest round. Araqchi called on parties to the negotiations to adopt the necessary measures seriously, realistically and resolutely in order to protect and revive the JCPOA.

The top Iranian nuclear negotiator’s remarks were indicative of how tough the next round of talks would be because he made it clear that the seventh round would be successful only if all sides made a tough decision to forgo some of their initial demands.

But what are these demands? And how are they affecting the state of play between Iran and the U.S. in the region?

Apropos Iranian demands, the Iranian negotiators have clearly outlined what they want, which does not go beyond full implementation of the JCPOA with all its economic dividends. Iran demanded that the U.S. remove all the sanctions imposed, re-imposed, or relabeled by the Trump administration as these sanctions were primarily part of a broader design to make it hard, if not impossible, for the next U.S. administration to rejoin the JCPOA.

For its part, the Biden administration has demanded a commitment to engage in follow-on talks to bolster and expand on the existing JCPOA, but Iran has virtually ruled that out, saying they are only interested in renewing the 2015 accord, according to an NBC News report.

With the negotiating teams poised to return to Vienna for the seventh round of talks, resuscitation of the JCPOA seems as far away from being within grasp as it has been before the sixth round during which little progress was reportedly made. And this is mainly because the U.S. still insists on “lengthening and strengthening” the JCPOA while also refusing to lift all the Trump-era sanctions.

To break this deadlock, the U.S. seems to be resorting to elements of Trump’s Iran policy, which include regional mobilization and targeted strikes against the so-called Iran-backed groups. The Pentagon announced early Monday that it carried out airstrikes against Iraqi and Syrian targets in what it described as a “self-defense” move. “Specifically, the U.S. strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries,” the Pentagon statement said, claiming that the facilities have been used by Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).

The Pentagon justified its move by saying that the groups targeted were “Iran-backed militia groups,” which “are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq.”

What made the airstrikes more suspicious is a move by the U.S. to block a number of news websites affiliated with Iranian state media or those of regional groups close to Iran. Last week, websites belonging to Iranian news media outlets, most notably the English-language Press TV and the Arabic-language Al Alam, as well as regional media outlets close to Iran, were blocked with a message showing that the websites were seized by the government of the United States.

Taken together, the U.S. measures against Iran can be construed as a U.S. message that Washington remains focused on combating Iran’s regional influence regardless of the JCPOA talks. And this, in its turn, sends another signal that if regional issues are not addressed whether in Vienna or elsewhere, tensions will continue to run high even after the JCPOA is revived in its original format. So, does the U.S. want to use this messaging to force Iran into making commitments that it will continue the discussions even after reviving the JCPOA? The answer to this vexing question may well determine the trajectory of negotiations in the coming days.

Whether Iran would change its position in the seventh round remains an open question. But the top Iranian nuclear negotiator said Iran has already made tough decisions to remain in the JCPOA and now it’s Washington’s turn to face up to the moment of making tough decisions.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has already made tough decisions. When the United States withdrew from the JCPOA and Iran decided to stay in the JCPOA. It was Iran’s big and difficult decision that led to the preservation of the JCPOA so far. Now it is the turn of the opposing parties, and according to the negotiations we had, they must decide and reach a conclusion on the revival of the JCPOA in order to reach an agreement,” Araghchi told Iranian state media after briefing lawmakers sitting on the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on the Vienna talks on Sunday.

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“The European Union and the United States recognize that, alongside the return to full and effective implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments, the lifting of sanctions constitutes an essential part of the JCPOA,” the EU and the US said in a joint statement after a summit on Tuesday.

The JCPOA was ditched on May 8, 2018 by former US president Donald Trump, who then followed the unilateral move with tough economic sanctions on Iran, prompting Iran – which remained patient for an entire year – to reduce its nuclear compliance under the deal on May 8, 2019.

Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has promised to rejoin the JCPOA while strongly criticizing the former hawkish US administration’s Iran policy, including its “failed” maximum pressure campaign.

The Vienna talks began based on that promise, although the US – as a non-party to the JCPOA – is not officially partaking in the talks between Iran and the other remaining parties to the 2015 landmark agreement, namely Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

In their Tuesday statement, the EU and the US stressed their support for the Vienna initiative to facilitate the return of the United States to the JCPOA, followed by Iran’s reversal of what it calls “remedial measures” against the US withdrawal and sanctions.

They also voiced determination to work together to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and renew global arms control efforts.

“The JCPOA remains critical to ensuring the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and to upholding the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture,” they added.

Throughout the years, Iran has insisted ad nauseam that it is not seeking to develop, possess or use nuclear weapons. Tehran has also gone out of its way to reassure its neighbors of the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities.

The Islamic Republic is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has allowed the strictest inspections of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the nuclear pact.

On Tuesday, Enrique Mora, who is coordinating the talks in Vienna, said progress has been made on overcoming key obstacles at the talks.

“The obstacles (are)…something that I think can be bridged,” Mora, the deputy of European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, told reporters.

“This is why we are here: to negotiate these different approaches, and I think we will succeed.”

Diplomats at the Vienna talks have said that the current round of the talks, which is the sixth since the negotiations began, is unlikely to be the last.

“We continue negotiations as much as needed without wasting our time or without letting anybody else waste our time. We continue negotiations, we are not in a hurry. We don’t have any deadline for ourselves,” Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s lead negotiator in the JCPOA talks, told Press TV on Sunday.

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Russian ambassador to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov told Laura Rozen that the deal has a good chance to be extended.

“I think the February understandings most likely have a good chance to be extended,” he said, adding, “But, as of the moment, our task is different- we need to reach an agreement on restoration of JCPOA by 21 May.”

The Russian diplomat was referring to a February deal between Iran and the IAEA which allowed the latter to continue its monitoring activities in Iran ahead of the implementation of a parliamentary nuclear law obligating the Iranian government to strictly restrict cooperation with the IAEA in case the West failed to lift sanctions.

According to a joint statement issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the IAEA and AEOI agreed: “1. That Iran continues to implement fully and without limitation its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA as before. 2. To a temporary bilateral technical understanding, compatible with the Law, whereby the IAEA will continue with its necessary verification and monitoring activities for up to 3 months (as per technical annex). 3. To keep the technical understanding under regular review to ensure it continues to achieve its purposes.”

On Sunday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, who is leading Iran’s negotiating team in Vienna, said the deal may be extended.

He told Japanese broadcaster NHK that Iran hopes enough progress will be made so that there will be no need for an extension. But he said that if needed, Iran will consider an extension at a proper time.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, announced Monday that extending Iran’s cooperation deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency is one of the country’s options a day after the top Iranian negotiator signaled a readiness to extend the deal.

Khatibzadeh elaborated on Araghchi’s comments, underlining that what Araghchi said was that the parliamentary nuclear law was binding and it will expire on May 30.

The nuclear law stipulates that the Iranian government should take certain nuclear measures such as raising the level of uranium enrichment to 20% and suspending the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol if the Western parties failed to honor their obligations under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran’s deal with the IAEA came a few days before the law came into force.

Speaking at his Monday press conference, Khatibzadeh said, “What Dr. Araghchi said in the interview with NHK is that the law of the parliament is binding and the date of May 30 regarding the agreement between Iran and the IAEA is definitive.”

The spokesman said Iran is not in a hurry to reach a conclusion in the Vienna talks but at the same time it seeks to prevent them from becoming draining.
“We do not want any date to prevent Tehran’s executive instructions from being strictly implemented for the negotiating team,” he pointed out. “In this interview, Dr. Araghchi pointed to only one of the choices for the date of May 21. If the talks are on the right track, with the coordination of both parties and Tehran’s approval, this date can be extended.”

Khatibzadeh said the decision regarding the extension of the February deal will not be made by the Iranian negotiating team. Instead, it will be made in Tehran.

At the same time that Araghchi hoped that the technical agreement would be extended, his American counterpart Wendy Sherman also expressed hope that this agreement would be extended.

“I am hopeful that we can reach an understanding so that the IAEA technical agreement that expires with Iran at the end of May can be extended,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told a meeting at the Atlantic Council on May 7, according to Rozen. “I’m hopeful that we make enough progress that it can stand as the Iranian election gets underway in June.”

Diplomats from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries as well as the U.S. are in Vienna to discuss the measures needed to be taken to bring Tehran and Washington back into full compliance with the JCPOA. The Iranian negotiating team held Monday a tripartite meeting with the three European signatories to the JCPOA – France, Germany and the UK- who act as intermediaries between Iran and the U.S. during the Vienna talks.

Also, three expert-level working groups are examining the measures needed to get Iran and the U.S. back to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
In addition, the U.S. and Russian delegations held bilateral meetings to discuss developments related to the JCPOA. The Russian delegation also met with the European signatories to the JCPOA.

“Met with Political Directors of France, Germany and U.K. who lead their respective delegations at the Vienna talks on full restoration of JCPOA. We had a constructive exchange of views on the current state of affairs and issues to be settled in order to achieve our common goal,” Ulyanov said on Twitter after meeting the Europeans.

As regards his discussions with the U.S delegation, the Russian diplomat said they were businesslike and useful.

“The Russian and the US delegations at the Vienna talks on JCPOA met again to exchange views on the progress made, as well as the way ahead. As always, the discussion was businesslike and useful,” Ulyanov tweeted.

Almost all parties to the Vienna talks have said some progress has been made in the talks but they also have said the talks are coming up against some difficulties.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Khatibzadeh said, “The talks in Vienna have entered the phase of drafting texts in the field of sanctions lifting and nuclear measures. Besides, a third working group whose work is being pursued more calmly is working. It is wrestling with different details, and these fluidities and details do not allow us to make public announcements, because the talks are going on and reach a different conclusion every day.”

He also said that as part of its commitments, the United States has accepted much of what it ought to do. Khatibzadeh said there are also some sanctions that the U.S. is not willing to lift, but Iran has made it clear that these sanctions were imposed to destroy the JCPOA and prevent Iran from reaping benefits from the JCPOA and thus must be removed.

“It is no secret that we have serious differences in this area. We are in talks with the Joint Commission of JCPOA and Tehran is examining this issue. Reports are reviewed in Tehran, and the positions are notified to the negotiating team every day, and they follow up,” he noted.

There are disagreements between the U.S. and Iran over which sanctions should be removed. The U.S. wants to keep some sanctions in place to use them as leverage to expand talks beyond the JCPOA, something that Iran has v

ehemently rejected. The sanctions have been put into three baskets — green, yellow, and red, depending on how clearly they are inconsistent with the deal. Green will be lifted; yellow must be negotiated; and red will stay, according to The New York Times

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