U.S. and Iran set to begin indirect talks on reviving nuclear deal in Vienna

BERLIN - Officials from the United States, Iran and other signatories to the Iranian nuclear deal converged in Vienna on Tuesday in the first significant step toward reviving the beleaguered 2015 agreement that President Biden has pledged to rejoin.

The meetings are not expected to include direct talks between Washington and Tehran - who have been at loggerheads on the process of how to return to the deal even while both express the desire to do so. Instead, diplomats from European countries will act as intermediaries in what Thomas Countryman, former acting undersecretary of state for arms control under the Obama administration, called a creative effort in “shuttle-down-the-hall-diplomacy.”

“It won’t be easy, but we are past the procedural roadblock,” he said on a call with reporters ahead of the meetings.

Designed to curb Iran’s nuclear program, the Trump administration withdrew from the deal in 2018, imposing hundreds of sanctions and restrictions which are expected to complicate efforts for the United States to return to compliance. Complaining that it could not reap the economic benefits of the deal as promised, Iran has also gradually breached its commitments, including ramping up enrichment levels and limiting inspections.

The dwindling breakout time before Iran is expected to be able to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, alongside approaching elections in Iran that may usher in a more hard-line government less inclined toward diplomacy, have added urgency to efforts to get the deal back on track.

The talks are an important goal for Biden, who campaigned on a pledge to return to the 2015 agreement. But the timing and structure of the meetings represent a disappointment for those who hoped for a quick and muscular U.S. engagement with Iran.

Approaching three months in office, Biden has not made any bold gesture to rejoin the deal and the United States and Iran remain publicly at odds. He rarely mentions the deal unless asked about it directly. The back-burner approach stands in contrast to Biden’s fast pace in offering legislation and initiatives to address domestic priorities, including blunting the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.

Biden’s advisers also appear split about whether rejoining the deal is the best way to contain Iran’s nuclear program, especially since some of its provisions begin to expire soon. Biden has said he wants to leverage the existing deal to get a broader and stronger agreement, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others have not ruled out other options.

Iran has pushed back at suggestions of renegotiation or expansion, insisting that Washington instead return to the deal it signed up to.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Tuesday, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said Iran is “not optimistic or pessimistic” about the outcome of the talks. “But we are confident that we are on the right track,” he said in comments published by Reuters. “And if America’s will, seriousness and honesty is proven, it could be a good sign for a better future for this agreement and ultimately its full implementation.”

Asked whether Biden is disappointed that talks had not come faster, and be fully face-to-face, White House press secretary Jen Psaki cautioned patience.

“Diplomacy can take time, and sometimes it is not at the pace that everyone would prefer,” she said Monday. “And we certainly have experience, as does he - from having been in the Obama-Biden administration - of the time it took to work through a diplomatic process.”

Psaki would not predict how long the talks would run, or whether they can be concluded ahead of elections in Iran in June that may change the landscape for Iranian participation. Biden’s special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, will lead the U.S. delegation.

The indirect structure, with European powers serving as go-betweens, “is still, in our view, a step forward toward diplomacy, and that remains our first objective,” Psaki said.

Biden has not budged from a hard public line that Iran must stop nuclear activities that violate the deal before the United States would drop sanctions that Trump reimposed. Iran though has insisted that Washington should be the first to move and drop its sanctions.

The agenda of the meetings is “the removal of all U.S. cruel sanctions,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at his weekly press briefing on Monday, according to comments carried by Iran’s Press TV. “The path is clear,” he said, adding that only then would Iran return to its commitments.

But European diplomats say they will negotiate a list of moves for each side in parallel in order to overcome the arguments over which side acts first. The plan is for Tehran and Washington to then implement the steps in coordination.

“We certainly expect that the primary issues that will be discussed over the course of the coming days are the nuclear steps that Iran would need to take in order to return to compliance with the terms of the JCPOA and the sanctions relief steps that the United States would need to take in order to return to compliance as well,” Psaki said.

Sometimes overlapping layers of economic sanctions brought in during the Trump administration’s shift to a campaign of “maximum pressure” on Tehran make the task ahead particularly complex.

“Both Trump administration officials and the regime change lobby here in Washington were and still are very explicit that the purpose was to make it as difficult as possible for a successor administration to remove sanctions - to make it difficult both bureaucratically and politically,” said Countryman, the former Obama administration official.

State Department spokesman Ned Price also played down expectations for a swift breakthrough.

“We don’t underestimate the scale of the challenges ahead. These are early days. We don’t anticipate an early or immediate breakthrough, as these discussions we fully expect will be difficult. But we do believe that these discussions with our partners and, in turn, our partners with Iran is a healthy step forward.”