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Russian diplomat: Negotiators on Iran nuclear deal to hold consultations in their capitals

The consultations are necessary to get prepared for a final round of negotiations

VIENNA, June 20. /TASS/. Participants in the Vienna talks on the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program habe decided to take a break and hold consultations in their capitals to get prepared for a final round of negotiations, Russian Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail ULyanov said on Sunday.

"The JC of JCPOA met today, took stock of the significant progress made at the ViennaTalks, including at the sixth round, and decided to make a break to allow participants to consult with their capitals in preparation for what is supposed to be the final round of negotiations," he wrote on his Twitter account.

Practicalle every round of the Joint Commission talks, held in Vienna since April, is follwed by statements on serious progress. The Russian envoy noted earlier that an agreement on the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal was within reach. He also said that there was nearly absolute clarity about US sanctions against Iran that were to be fifted and that a list of steps Iran was to make to get back to its commitments had been nearly agreed.

The JCPOA Joint Commission has had several offline meetings in Vienna since April to discuss prospects for the United States’ possible return to the deal and steps needed to ensure full and efficient compliance with the deal’s terms by all its signatories. The commission members continue to discuss ways of restoring the nuclear deal at informal meetings in various formats, including at an expert level. JCPOA participants also hold separate consultations with the US delegation without Iran's participation. It was originally planned to finish consultations in late May and then - in early June.

The 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 total control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange of 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 in question after the United States’ unilateral pullout in May, 2018 and Washington’s unilateral oil export sanctions against Teheran. Iran argued that all 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.