Brussels 20.06.2021 The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will resume on Sunday 20 June in Vienna. (Image: archive)

The Joint Commission will be chaired, on behalf of EU High Representative Josep Borrell, by the Deputy Secretary General/Political Director of the European External Action Service, Enrique Mora.

It will be attended by representatives of China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Iran.

Participants will continue their discussions in view of a possible return of the United States to the JCPOA and on how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA.

Russia’s permanent representative to the international organisations in Vienna said a consensus on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is “within reach” as the parties to the agreement prepare to meet in the framework of the Joint Commission.

“The Joint Commission of JCPOA will meet on Sunday, June 20. It will decide on the way ahead at the Vienna Talks. An agreement on restoration of the nuclear deal is within reach but is not finalized yet,” Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted on Saturday, using an acronym for the official name of the nuclear accord, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Also, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has travelled to Turkey to take part in Antalya Diplomacy Forum in his Twitter micro blog, highlighting the responsibility of the United States, as the party that exited the nuclear deal and broke the agreement, to fix it.

The European External Action Service (EEAS) said in a press release that the JCPOA Joint Commission will resume in the Austrian capital on Sunday, with representatives of China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Iran in attendance.

The meeting will be chaired, on behalf of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, by EEAS Deputy Secretary General/Political Director Enrique Mora said.

“Participants will continue their discussions in view of a possible return of the United States to the JCPOA and on how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA,” according to the press release.

Iran, P4+1 likely to reach agreement on JCPOA revival before Rouhani’s administration leaves office, Foreign Minister Zarif said. Zarif has suggested that Iran and the P4+1 group of countries are very likely to agree on ways to revive the JCPOA before the end of President Rouhani’s office in mid-August.
In recent months, envoys from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries have been engaged in the Vienna talks aimed at returning the US to compliance, according to the Iranian Press TV reports.

A US delegation is also in the Austrian capital, but it is not attending the discussions because the United States is not a party to the nuclear accord.

President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions that the JCPOA had previously lifted. He also placed additional sanctions on Iran in relation to the other issues next to the nuclear case as part of the “maximum pressure” campaign.

Following a year of strategic patience, Iran resorted to its legal rights stipulated in Article 26 of the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of non-compliance by other signatories, and let go of some of the restrictions imposed on its nuclear energy program.

Now, the new US administration, under President Joe Biden, indicates that it wishes to compensate for 45th President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the deal and make an effort to rejoin it, nevertheless it is demonstrating its intention for maintaining some of the sanctions as a tool of pressure.

Tehran insists that all sanctions should first be removed in a “verifiable manner” before the Islamic Republic reverses its remedial measures.