The heads of the British and French delegations in the Iranian nuclear talks said on Friday that external factors hindering the negotiations must be resolved in the coming days, warning that otherwise the talks could collapse. Stéphanie Al-Qaq stated on Twitter, "A fair and comprehensive agreement is ready to be signed... external factors must be resolved in the coming days, otherwise the potential agreement will collapse," according to Reuters. Her French counterpart, Philippe Errera, echoed her remarks in a separate tweet.
Iranian news agency reported that Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Baqeri Kani, left Vienna on Friday after the talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers halted. Earlier on Friday, the European Union's foreign policy chief indicated that Iran and world powers had paused talks regarding the revival of the nuclear agreement due to "external factors," following last-minute Russian demands that threatened to derail the negotiations, which were nearing conclusion.
The talks faced the risk of collapse after a last-minute Russian request forced world powers to temporarily halt negotiations for an indefinite period, despite the agreement text being largely completed. The 11-month negotiations aimed at restoring the deal, which would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, had reached their final stages. However, last Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov unexpectedly demanded comprehensive guarantees that Russian trade with Iran would not be affected by sanctions imposed on Moscow due to its invasion of Ukraine, a request that Western powers say is unacceptable, with Washington insisting on rejecting it.
Tehran indicated on Thursday that new obstacles were emerging in reviving the agreement. Washington affirmed that it does not intend to meet Russia's demands, which it stated have no relevance to the Iranian negotiations. Just a week prior, preparations were underway in Vienna for a weekend meeting to finalize an agreement that would bring Iran back into compliance with its rapidly advancing nuclear activities and reinstate the United States into the agreement it withdrew from in 2018, subsequently reimposing sanctions on Tehran.
