European powers warn Iran nuclear talks ‘reaching end of road’
European diplomats in talks to save the Iran nuclear deal said Friday that “some technical progress” had been made but warned they were “rapidly reaching the end of the road.”
“There has been some technical progress in the last 24 hours, but this only takes us back nearer to where the talks stood in June,” Britain, France and Germany said in a statement after the latest talks ended in Vienna.
“We are rapidly reaching the end of the road for this negotiation,” they added, calling the latest pause requested by Tehran as “disappointing.”
The talks — aimed at bringing the US back into the agreement, which it left in 2018, and Iran to roll back its stepped-up nuclear activities — started in April this year, but then stopped for several months as the Islamic republic elected a new hardline government.
“We have made good progress this week,” Tehran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said on Twitter on Friday before the meeting to take stock and adjourn the talks, adding they would continue “after a break of a few days.”
Washington — which under then-president Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reinstated sanctions on Iran — is indirectly participating in the talks.
The negotiations also include China and Russia, both parties to the agreement, which was meant to offer Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
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