VIENNA, December 17. /TASS/. The eighth round of the Vienna talks on the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal may begin in late December or early January 2022, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov told TASS on Friday, commenting on the results of the seventh round of talks.

"As for the date for the resumption of talks, there is no complete clarity. The issue of the date is open. As far as I understand, there are two options: either to resume the work on December 27, at least the expert level within the framework of the eighth round, or on January 3, when everyone is ready for that. The Russian delegation is ready to work without breaks," he said.

The seventh round of talks on the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal finished in Vienna on Friday. The parties confirmed that further work will center around documents elaborated during the previous six rounds from June 2021. It was noted that the parties want to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program in its original edition.

Russian-US cooperation during Vienna talks

Cooperation between Russia and the United States at the Vienna talks on the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal is pragmatic and meets the interests of both countries, Ulyanov said.

"As the head of the Russian delegation, I am quite satisfied with the quality of our cooperation with US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, who leads the US delegation to these talks," he said.

He described the two countries’ efforts as inspiring hope as they have made it possible to reach serious progress during the seventh round of the Vienna talks. "Our cooperation is purely pragmatic. The United States and Russia are interested in restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and lifting the US sanctions imposed under the Donald Trump administration," Ulyanov said. "This is the basis we can build cooperation on. I hope such cooperation will be continued."

The seventh round of talks on the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal finished in Vienna on Friday. The parties confirmed that further work will center around documents elaborated during the previous six rounds by June 2021. It was noted that the parties want to restore the JCPOA on the Iranian nuclear program in its original edition.

The negotiators confirmed that further work will be based on the documents, which were elaborated during the previous six rounds, by June 2021.

JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France) and Germany in 2015. Under the deal, Iran undertook to curb its nuclear activities and place them under the total control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange for the abandonment of the sanctions imposed previously by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the United States over its nuclear program.

The future of the deal was called into question after the United States’ unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and Washington’s unilateral oil export sanctions against Teheran. Iran argued that all the other participants, Europeans in the first place, were ignoring some of their own obligations in the economic sphere, thus making the deal in its current shape senseless. This said, it began to gradually scale down its commitments under the deal.