Iran nuclear talks restart in Vienna

VIENNA: Negotiators kicked off a fresh round of talks over Iran’s nuclear programme in Vienna on Thursday, seeking to salvage the agreement on Tehran’s atomic ambitions.

Officials from world powers and Iran were meeting in the Austrian capital for the first time since March, when negotiations, which began in 2021 to reintegrate the United States into the agreement, stalled.

In late June, Qatar hosted indirect talks between Tehran and Washington in the hope of getting the process back on track -- but those talks failed to make a breakthrough. In a last-ditch effort, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell submitted a compromise proposal last month and called on the parties to accept it to avoid a "dangerous nuclear crisis".

Borrell said the draft text includes "hard-won compromises by all sides" and "addresses, in precise detail, the sanctions lifting as well as the nuclear steps needed to restore" the 2015 pact.

Bilateral talks began on Thursday at Vienna’s luxury Palais Coburg hotel under the auspices of the European Union’s representative Enrique Mora. The Iranian and Russian delegations, which have traditionally been close in the negotiations, held a separate meeting.

Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and the United States signed the JCPOA in July 2015. Delegations from all will partake in Thursday’s talks, but officials from the US and Iran are not expected to meet face to face.

But following the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 under former president Donald Trump and the re-imposition of US sanctions, Tehran has backtracked on its obligations.