MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. Moscow can see a commitment of all parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as well as the United States, to reviving the Iran nuclear deal as soon as possible, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesman Ivan Nechayev said at a briefing on Thursday.
"We can see a commitment on the part of all parties to the JCPOA, including the United States, to fine-tune the joint commission’s decisions in order to get the implementation of the JCPOA back to the original time frames," the Russian diplomat said.
He said the recent round of indirect talks in Vienna between US and Iranian delegations with the EU’s diplomatic service as a mediator resulted in an updated package of joint commission decisions drafted by the EU coordinator where progress on a number of issues that it was previously impossible to close was reflected. "The document is being closely considered in the capitals now," he added.
Of late, the West has been issuing statements saying that it’s time to end the negotiations, since everything worth discussing has already been put in the text, the Russian diplomat noted.
"European Commission Spokesperson Peter Stano has even afforded himself to present it as if participants in the Vienna talks are faced with a radical choice - either to agree to the draft agreements which have been circulated or to admit the collapse in the negotiations," Nechayev said.
However, the joint commission has not made any decisions on the matter, nor has it empowered the coordinator or his representatives to make any verdicts, he said. According to Nechayev, Russia has repeatedly warned that the language of ultimatums in such a delicate issue as the revival of the JCPOA won’t work.
Nechayev also stressed that a breakthrough in the talks to revive the JCPO was quite likely and that there were no insoluble issues between the sides.
"Work on the draft package aimed at restoring [the JCPOA] will finish when the interests of all the sides involved in the process are duly taken into account. We assume that Washington, Brussels and other European capitals understand that and we think that a breakthrough in the talks is quite possible. There are no irreconcilable differences between the key players," the Russian diplomat said.