Iranˈs Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced in a statement on Friday that Iran and the world powers had agreed on extension of talks until November 24, added Sundayˈs edition of the English-language paper in its Opinion column.
The original deadline for a comprehensive deal between both sides was due July 20. The statement said that a new round of talks will start in the “coming weeks.”
The extension of talks was predicted in the landmark interim deal reached between both sides in Geneva on November 24, 2013.
The most important issue of the recent talks was not the extension of the negotiations, but the marathon talks had many achievements.
Discussion of all differences between both sides and their will to find a way out of the 13-year deadlock was the first achievement, noted the paper.
Drafting a major part of the text of the comprehensive agreement on Iran’s nuclear energy program, despite the existence of all differences, which has finally been started is another achievement. Consultation between representatives of countries in the talks for resolving differences was yet another success, the paper added.
Now, the negotiating teams know what they are up to. They have reached a common understanding on some items and want to narrow differences on remaining controversial issues, the paper said adding that the situation is very important for the US and Iran because both are key parties to the talks. Fortunately, as said by Iranian and American top diplomats, they agreed on macro issues and that they are trying to reach a permanent win-win solution over Iran’s nuclear program.
One of the most important issues that was discussed in Vienna was the modality Washington would lift its illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran?
If the US fails to introduce a reliable timeframe for lifting the sanctions, the future talks will face deadlock, it said.
Safeguarding national interests of Iran depends on removal of sanctions and if it does not happen the final deal will be hard to achieve.
The US administration is trying to sign the deal in a manner to ensure peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities.
Iran has already announced readiness for such a deal, but Washington too should introduce a confidence-building plan insuring the lifting of all sanctions as soon as the deal is clinched.
The main problem of the US government is the Congress that has passed over 70 percent of the illegal embargoes against Tehran.
If the Obama administration fails to convince the Congress in this regard, it would not be able to give any guarantee to Iran regarding lifting of the sanctions. So, the main problem of the negotiations in reaching the final deal will remain to be the lifting of sanctions.
Under the circumstances, the US will be held responsible for the failure of talks, because the other P5+1 members have no role in imposing or lifting of the US embargos against the Islamic Republic. Russia and China were against the unilateral Western sanctions and have no responsibility in this regard, the paper said in conclusion.
