EU Coordinator to travel to Iran to close gaps for nuke talks

Vienna, March 26 (IANS) The European Union (EU) Coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, Enrique Mora has said he will travel to Tehran on Saturday to close the gaps on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Mora, Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, said on Friday on Twitter that he plans to meet Iran's Chief Negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani in the Iranian capital on Saturday, as part of the efforts to close "the remaining gaps in the Vienna talks."

"We must conclude this negotiation. Much is at stake," he added.

The EU Coordinator's remarks came two weeks after the EU on March 11 announced a pause in the Vienna talks on restoring the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Xinhua news agency reported.

In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: China, France, Russia, Britain and the US, plus Germany) and the EU. However, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the pact in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, which prompted Iran to drop some of its nuclear commitments.

Since April 2021, Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties have held eight rounds of marathon talks in Vienna to revive the deal.