The European Union’s foreign policy chief Friday requested a “pause” in multilateral talks on reviving the nuclear deal with Iran, apparently after a last-minute Russian gambit threatened to torpedo the nearly completed pact.
Talks had intensified in recent days in Vienna to bring both the U.S. and Iran back into compliance with the deal, after President Trump pulled Washington out of the pact in 2018 and Iran responded by breaking through the limits on its suspect nuclear program set out in the agreement.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s point man on foreign policy, said in a statement on Twitter that a pause in the negotiations was needed “due to external factors.”
There had been increasingly optimistic talk by the Biden administration and Iranian officials in recent weeks that a revived agreement was within reach, and Mr. Borrell confirmed Friday that “a final text is essentially ready and on the table.”
But Russia, a key signatory to the original deal, rocked the Vienna talks late last week with a new demand that its bilateral trading rights under the new deal would not be affected by the harsh sanctions the U.S. and its allies have imposed on Moscow since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. and the leading European powers in the talks — France, Germany and Britain — rejected the Kremlin’s demands, and even the hard-line Iranian government pressed the Kremlin to clarify the shift.
Prior to the Ukraine war, Russia had been one of the most ardent supporters of a new Iran deal, and its envoy to the Vienna talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, told reporters Moscow was not at fault for the potential breakdown in talks.
“The conclusion of the deal does not depend on Russia only,” Mr. Ulyanov said Friday, according to the Reuters news agency. “There are other actors who need additional time and who have additional concerns, and they are being discussed.”
Iran, which has become increasingly anxious to cut a deal and ease painful U.S. economic sanctions re-imposed by Mr. Trump, tried to paint an optimistic picture of the unexpected delay.
“Pause in Vienna Talks could be a momentum for resolving any remaining issue and a final return,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh tweeted Friday. “… No external factor will affect our joint will to go forward for a collective agreement.”
Mr. Biden faces a tough sell in Congress for any new deal with Iran, which is also staunchly opposed by Israel. Nearly two dozen House members on Thursday issued a bipartisan letter criticizing many reported points in the agreement and signaling they would likely oppose the final pact.