Russia is a signatory to the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) along with other remaining signatories such as China, France, Germany, Iran, and the UK. The United States also was a party to the deal but it withdrew from the JCPOA on May 8, 2018, imposing far-reaching sanctions on Iran.

Russia paved the way for Iran and the West to implement the nuclear deal. For instance, it was Russia that facilitated the transfer of Iran’s enriched uranium outside of the country. In December 2015, Iran announced that it successfully transferred 11 tons of its enriched uranium to Russia, a move that helped Iran implement the JCPOA.

Following Trump’s withdrawal, the nuclear deal began teetering on the brink of total collapse as the United States deprived Iran of the economic benefits promised in the nuclear deal. Russia, as a responsible party to the JCPOA, unequivocally condemned the U.S. non-compliance with the JCPOA and, at some point, it even sought to soothe tensions between Tehran and Washington when the three European signatories to the JCPOA -France, Germany, and the UK- were blandly issuing political statements calling on the U.S. to stop efforts aimed at killing the nuclear deal.

The Russian efforts to save the JCPOA were done despite the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had famously said on May 15, 2019, that he was no longer willing to play the role of firefighter to extinguish the fire the Americans lit by withdrawing from the JCPOA.

“We regret that the deal is falling apart… After the signing of the agreement Iran was and still is the world’s most verifiable and transparent country in this sense… Iran is fulfilling all of its obligations… Russia is not a fire brigade. We cannot rescue everything that does not fully depend on us. We’ve played our part,” Putin said at the time.

A year later, Putin appeared to be assuming a new role in preventing a total collapse of the deal after he received an “important message” from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on July 21. The message was delivered by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. At the end of his visit, Zarif said in a tweet that he “delivered an important message to President Putin,” and held “extensive talks” with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on bilateral cooperation as well as regional and global coordination. According to Zarif, Iran and Russia had “identical views” on the nuclear deal.

Two days after Zarif’s visit, President Putin and his American counterpart then-President Trump “thoroughly” discussed several “issues of strategic stability”, including Iran’s nuclear program, in a telephone call. “The situation with the Iranian nuclear program was touched on. Both sides emphasized the need for a collective effort to maintain regional stability and the global nuclear non-proliferation regime,” the Kremlin said in a statement after the call, which was described by Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, as “very encouraging.”

In the meantime, Russian strongly supported Iran during its showdown with the Trump administration over the expiration of the UN arms embargo against Tehran, which the previous U.S. administration worked its butt off to extend but failed to do so.

Russia continued to defend the JCPOA after Joe Biden come into power. Russian officials highlighted the failure of the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign launched by the Trump administration against Iran.

“Why do almost all countries support the restoration of JCPOA? Because it is a key element of the international non-proliferation architecture. The deal, if restored, can provide credible assurances of the peaceful character of the Iranian nuclear program via intrusive IAEA verification,” Ulyanov tweeted last week.

He added, “Some people oppose JCPOA restoration. But is there a realistic alternative? No. Maximum pressure policy totally failed and just prompted the development of the Iranian nuclear program beyond 2015 parameters. This is a matter of fact. Does anybody want this trend to continue?”

Highlighting the failure of the U.S. economic pressure has been a remarkable position with which Russia put diplomatic pressure on Washington to encourage policy reconsideration on Iran.

“Some people can’t draw lessons from the mistakes of the past. Do we need further evidence to recognize the total failure of the maximum pressure policy? Did ‘Pompeo’s 12 points’ materialize? The arguments of opponents of the JCPOA can’t be taken seriously,” Ulyanov wrote on Twitter in mid-March.

Now that Iran and the P4+1 have resumed nuclear talks, Russia also tries to positively influence the talks. Iran has appreciated this role by intensifying consultations with the Russians. On Tuesday, top Iranian nuclear negotiator Seyed Abbas Araghchi held a trilateral meeting with the Russian and Chinese envoys to the talks. The meeting was held hours before another meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, indicating the importance Iran attaches to consultations with the Russians and the Chinese.

Ulyanov, who represented Russia in the trilateral meeting, described it as “very fruitful.”

“We compared notes and exchanged views on the way ahead towards full restoration of the nuclear deal. It was a very fruitful meeting,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

On the other hand, Araghchi underlined the shared views of Iran, Russia, and China on the nuclear talks.

“The heads of delegations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, and China stressed the common ground of the three delegations and the need for continued consultation and serious coordination between the three countries in these negotiations,” the Iranian nuclear negotiator said in a statement after the trilateral meeting.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Stating that step-by-step plans or an interim agreement are baseless, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister said that Iran is only talking about the final step in lifting the oppressive sanctions against the Iranian nation.

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In the meeting which was held in a friendly climate, the bilateral relations between Iran and the European country were reviewed and the two sides emphasized the will of the two nations to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields, and discussed other issues of mutual interest. They also discussed the latest round of talks in the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting in Vienna.

In this regard and while thanking the Austrian government for its efforts and hospitality and especially Austrian police proper reaction in wake of the MKO grouplet supporters’ gathering in front of the hotel hosting the JCPOA meeting, Araqchi explained Iran’s stance and stressed the need for the full lifting of the sanctions and the practical steps that the U.S. government must take to return to the JCPOA.

Schallenberg, for his part, stressed the readiness of the Austrian government to provide the necessary facilities and make every effort to create a suitable atmosphere for the holding of Iran-related talks in Vienna and described the JCPOA and its continuation as being in the interest of all parties (Westerns).

The Vienna meeting is being held in a condition that P4+1 countries have become content to mediate in the dispute between Iran and the U.S. and to draw up ways of protecting the JCPOA and ways of return of both countries to the JCPOA.

This point that the U.S. pullout from the JCPOA during Donald Trump’s presidency led to 80 percent failure of the JCPOA and lack of commitment of Europe and caused the trust to the sustainability  regarding the obligations and promises of the West has completely been questioned, and Iran has repeatedly emphasized that the only way for the U.S. return to the JCPOA is its full commitment to its obligations and removing effectively all of the imposed, even the re-imposed sanctions or re-named sanctions and their verifications.

The result of the meeting still with drawing up plans covering two impacts has been put on the agenda of the two expert workgroups. Although the U.S. openly and explicitly announced that it is opposed to remove all sanctions and has put on the agenda some issues beyond the JCPOA and with these methods it shows that Biden Administration despite repeated claims of its intention to return to the JCPOA and diplomacy is not ready for any practical action in this field.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Permanent Representative of Russia to International Organizations in Vienna, in his tweet regarding this issue wrote, “Two expert-level groups (on sanctions lifting and nuclear issues) were tasked to identify concrete measures to be taken by Washington and Tehran to restore full implementation of JCPOA.” In one prediction, they will try first to restore to some extent the lost reputation of the West and secondly, they will try to find a way to save President Hassan Rouhani’s government from this current ludicrous condition which has wasted almost eight years of Iranian nation for almost no achievement of course through Western diplomacy and methods.

In contradiction to this approach, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, who had hidden in the backroom of the negotiations and moniting the pettiest detail of talks, criticized the raised topics by Iran and called it “too much” and added, “We do not expect any immediate breakthrough. We recognize this to be potentially the start of a process, knowing that we do have a long – a potentially long road ahead.” State Department’s Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, heading the U.S. representative in the meeting in Vienna and monitoring the talks from the adjacent room, said after the meeting, “The U.S. has some concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile programs and first we should put the current nuclear issue to the side, then the talks on Iran’s regional activities will start.”

This meeting is getting executive in a condition that Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has not taken part in it and it shows seemingly the Rouhani Government has sill retained an upper hand in facing with the West.

If we notice the reasons for holding the meeting, we reach this point that the Iran-China agreement has led to the full reason for the West’s fear of Iran’s getting rid of sanctions and its defiance to the JCPOA. Of course, the West is in a great dilemma both to compensate the maximum pressure on Iran and at the same time not to give any concession for the survival of the Islamic Republic establishment and it is seeking a solution wretchedly and perplexedly.

Some believe that the upcoming presidential election in Iran causes that the West helps its West-oriented favorite candidate to win, and for this reason it wants to take an effective action on the result of the election but this wish is much closer to delusion because eight years of the resistant Iranian nation’s policy of tolerating the armed to the teeth President Rouhani’s anti-public government has had only one result for the West and it has been distribution of poverty and destitution, and as the result distrust of around 90 percent of the public to its West-ward look.

So the Westerners with their intention of gradual toppling concealed in their velvet gloves are unlikely to change their policy in encountering Iran. Of course under the influence of Iran-China agreement, they will try first to find a way for destroying this relation and secondly offering some proposals in the level of lollypops for massive induction propagation for providing stuff for the pro-Westerners in Iran.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s government spokesman says Tehran is currently neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the JCPOA talks in Vienna, but it still believes is taking the right path.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Stating that a new chapter in the revival of JCPOA is being witnessed, President Rouhani noted that today all parties to the JCPOA have come to the conclusion that there is no way out but the full implementation of the accord.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Technical consultations in the two areas of lifting sanctions and nuclear issues are among the most important topics of the 18th  vienna meeting of the Joint Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran said.

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It’s been almost three years since Trump, the 45th lame-duck American president withdrew from JCPOA. The European Union, however, did not flip the table and nominally stayed in. However, they did not keep up with their commitments. With Trump secretly making calls and sending letters to bring Iran around the same table, the Islamic Republic of Iran suspended implementation of some parts of the JCPOA in May 2019 and started enriching uranium beyond the agreed 3.67%. Since then, there have been many diplomatic conflicts.

Before Joe Biden was elected as president of the United States, he had developed a foreign policy plan in which he had stated that he would revive the JCPOA; yet he would seek to negotiate with Iran over ballistic missiles, accusing Iran of destabilizing the region. Yet, they have softened quite a bit after the election. This is particularly important as neither Iran nor the U.S. are in the same position they were in 2019. Iran has reached a 25-year deal with China, trying to distance itself from Western countries, and the United States is “seemingly” trying a diplomatic approach with countries such as Yemen, Iran, etc.

The Biden administration clearly knows that the United States has shattered the trust of Iranian government, and the Iranian people when Donald Trump left the JCPOA in cold blood. The process of restoring this shattered trust is not easy at all, particularly when Iran has signed comprehensive strategic partnership with China.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the United States sees indirect talks with Iran in Vienna as “potentially constructive” but is clear-eyed about the diplomacy and doesn’t currently expect direct talks to take place. Meanwhile, Biden’s special U.S. envoy for Iran Robert Malley stated in an interview with PBS NewsHour “ …so we want to get Iran back into compliance. And the United States knows that, in order to get back into compliance, it’s going to have to lift those sanctions that are inconsistent with the deal that was reached with Iran and the other countries involved in the nuclear deal.”

Meanwhile, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran, has ruled out the possibility of “shuttle diplomacy” between Iran and the United States in an interview with the national TV.

“We will have no direct or indirect talks with the Americans in Vienna. We will negotiate within the Joint Commission with the P4+1 and will announce our demand and condition for returning to compliance with the JCPOA. We demand that the United States first fulfill all of its obligations and lift all the sanctions it has imposed, and then we will verify and return,”

While Israel has expressed deep concerns over United States policy towards Iran, it seems that Saudi Arabia wants a seat in the Vienna talks as well. In an interview with CNN, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan called for participation in the Iran nuclear talks, calling it an opportunity for dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the possibility of developing relations between the two countries.

But, what should we expect from the Vienna talks? Obviously, no immediate agreements whatsoever. Both parties know that this is a tough field to play, thanks to Trump’s idiocy. The main question however is this: Will Iran allow shuttle diplomacy to happen? Will there be any talks, direct or indirect, between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States? The answer lies deeply in Tuesday’s events.

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