Talks ‘intensify’ on bringing U.S. back into Iran nuclear deal

Both sides signal interest in working out agreement

VIENNA — World powers held a fourth round of high-level talks Friday aimed at bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran, with both sides signalling a willingness to work out the major stumbling blocks.

The talks began in Austria in early April. Russian delegate Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted following Friday’s meeting that “the participants agreed on the need to intensify the process.”

“The delegations seem to be ready to stay in Vienna as long as necessary to achieve the goal,” he wrote.

The U.S. pulled out of the landmark 2015 deal in 2018 after then-president Donald Trump said the pact needed to be renegotiated. The Trump administration reimposed heavy sanctions on the Islamic republic in an unsuccessful bid to bring Tehran into new talks.

Iran reacted by steadily increasing its violations of the deal by enriching uranium to a greater purity than permitted, stockpiling more enriched uranium than allowed and using more advanced centrifuges.

U.S. President Joe Biden says he wants to rejoin the deal, but that Iran needs to return to compliance.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Biden said he believed the Iranians were approaching the talks seriously. “But how serious and what they’re prepared to do is a different story,” he said. “We’re still talking.”

Iran’s delegate to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, told Iranian state television his impression was that all sides were committed to finding a solution.