The new working groups aim to create a roadmap for a synchronized return from both countries to compliance. But even if there is an agreement, the verification will take some time due to technical complications and the lack of trust on both sides.
For example, companies that want to do business with Iran, and that were very devastated when Trump again imposed powerful American sanctions, will want to be sure that a new government will not reimpose sanctions. Iran will want to see economic benefits, not just their promise, and the United States will want the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that Iran returns to compliance and does not cheat, as it has done in the past.
In Vienna, Iran met with the other current members of the business – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, under the presidency of the European Union – in a large hotel hall, while the American team, led by the special envoy Robert Malley, worked separately at a nearby hotel. Iran has refused to meet directly with the United States, so Europeans are engaging in a kind of intermediate diplomacy.
The United States also wants to convince Iran to negotiate longer time limits for the agreement and to start new negotiations on limiting Iranian missiles and supporting Shiite allies and militias in the region, including in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Iran said it has no interest in considering further negotiations until the United States restores the status quo ante and returns to the agreement.
More broadly, American officials are trying to assess whether the United States and Iran can agree on how each can return to complying with the nuclear deal – or at least work to fill any gaps in mutual understanding.
Iran was represented by Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister, who was instrumental in negotiating the 2015 agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan, or JCPOA, with the administration of then-vice president Barack Obama and Biden -president.
Araghchi said in a statement after the negotiations that suspending U.S. sanctions would be “the first and most necessary step to revive the JCPOA. The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully ready to stop its nuclear retaliation and return to its full commitments as soon as The sanctions are over. of the USA are raised and verified. ”