MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Moscow seeks to complete talks on the return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program in February this year, Russia’s Permanent Envoy to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said in an interview with the Kommersant daily.

"Either way, we will aim to complete negotiations as soon as possible, preferably in the current month," he said.

Ulyanov noted that Moscow categorically rejected the establishment of "artificial deadlines" for the completion of negotiations, but believes that they should not be delayed. "In terms of the Russian Federation, we are strongly against setting artificial deadlines. At the same time, we agree that negotiations should not drag on and if desired, they can be finished by the end of this month. This is real in the presence of political will and readiness of the parties to show reasonable flexibility," he added.

According to Ulyanov, a final document on the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal has already been drafted.

"I think yes, the current stage can be called the final one. A lot of work has been done," he said when asked at which stage the talks currently are.

"A final document has been drafted. It has several provisions requiring additional work but the paper is on the table. It is quite long, having more than 20 pages. This is the basis to finish the talks within a short time," he said.

According to the Russian diplomat, it will be a political document outlining concrete steps to return to the original nuclear deal. "A political section and supplements. The document covers the issues of cancelling US sanctions, as well as steps in the nuclear sphere Iran will have to make, and, finally, the sequence of the implementation of these agreements," he explained.

"When the final agreement is reached, a period of preparations for its implementation will begin. It may take a couple of months. And after that, a day will come when we, ultimately, see the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - TASS) in action in the format it was agreed back in 2015. But this is only a rough plan and we will have to work on it further," Ulyanov stressed.

When asked whether the final document will require any actions by the United Nations Security Council, which passed a special resolution in support for the JCPOA back in 2015, Ulyanov noted that the topic of another UN resolution has not been raised. "Probably, there will be no need in it," he added.

The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has had seven offline meetings in Vienna since April to find ways to restore the nuclear deal in its original form. The sides discuss prospects for the United States’ possible return to the deal, steps needed to ensure full compliance with the deal’s terms by Iran, and issues of lifting the anti-Iranian sanctions.

The eighth round of talks kicked off on December 27, 2021. It is expected to be the last one as the negotiators are set to finish the work by early February.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (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.