Negotiations inch forward on deal to restore Iran nuke deal

Tehran: Negotiations on a deal to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran are reportedly inching forwards, with Tehran saying on Thursday that it was examining the latest proposal.

Iran received a response from the US administration on Wednesday to EU foreign affairs envoy Josep Borrell’s compromise proposal for the text of the agreement, reports dpa news agency.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Thursday that Tehran would now carefully examine the US response and then immediately announce its decision to the EU.

Iran had sent the EU its response to Borrell’s compromise proposal last week, and also some proposed amendments, to which the US has now responded in turn.

The sides are “closer now than we were just a couple of weeks ago”, National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

“Gaps remain. We’re not there yet,” the Washington Post quoted him as saying.

Representatives of Iran and several countries, including Germany, had tried to reach an agreement at talks in Vienna in early August, mediated by the EU, to lift US sanctions and reinstate restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

These were the original goals of a 2015 pact to prevent Tehran from building nuclear weapons.

The US had left the agreement in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump.

At the end of the talks this month, EU’s Borrell had stressed that the text for the agreement was now ready and only a “yes or no” was needed.