Whether Washington will lift sanctions against Iran, whether it will return to the nuclear agreement, whether the Islamic Republic will restrict uranium enrichment again, depends on the results of the consultations that are currently taking place intensively in Vienna. At the negotiating table of the Special Commission on the Nuclear Deal, known as the JCPOA, the 4+1 countries (permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, Great Britain, France, and Germany) and Iran. Separate consultations are held by the EU and the European “trio” with the United States.

Washington and Tehran approached the moment of negotiations from such disparate positions that it seemed that no rapprochement was possible. Washington wanted to return to the deal, but to lift sanctions slowly and in stages, while simultaneously negotiating to limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and abandoning Tehran’s foreign policy ambitions in regional politics.

For Iran, these conditions are obviously impossible. The Islamic Republic regards its missile program as an essential element of its defensive doctrine. And building and strengthening the so – called “Axis of Resistance” with its allies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Palestine is a foreign policy priority that ensures its own security. In addition, Iran considers such demands of the United States as an encroachment on its sovereignty.

Iran has taken a firm stand, declaring that the SFPA is not subject to change and revision as a document that has suffered through two years of negotiations and was approved by a special UN Security Council resolution. “Iran wants to implement the same JCPOA, not a word less and not a word more,” the Iranian newspaper Etelaat quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying.

Moreover, convinced of the unreliability of the United States, which withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018 and resumed the toughest sanctions against Iran, Tehran now insists that it will return to its obligations under the deal only after all sanctions imposed by Washington after 2016 are permanently lifted. In addition, for several months, Iran intends to monitor whether the United States hinders Iranian foreign economic relations. The Iranian Foreign Ministry, explaining its position, emphasizes: just as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requires verification of Iran’s nuclear activities in practice and on the ground, so Iran, in turn, should be able to verify the lifting of sanctions in practice.

Meanwhile, Iranian nuclear scientists have already brought the concentration of uranium enrichment at the Natanz nuclear center to almost 60% and continue to install new cascades of modern and more productive centrifuges there, demonstrating to the world that it is impossible to talk to Iran from a position of strength and intimidation. Recall that with the conclusion of the JCPOA in 2015, the Islamic Republic reduced enrichment from 20% to 3.67% and complied with the terms of the deal until May 2019, waiting in vain for the European parties to the agreement to take at least some real steps to ensure Iran’s access to world markets.

Of course, the sanctions do not allow Iran, which has a huge resource and human potential, to make a qualitative economic breakthrough, to solve the most important socio-economic problems. But Washington also failed to achieve its goal of causing an internal political explosion in the Islamic Republic.

The negotiations in the Austrian capital are extremely difficult, but some progress is still being made. Iran’s Foreign ministry described the talks as “relatively constructive, ” while stressing that”there is no question of any interim agreement in Vienna”. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif confirmed that “there are glimmers of hope and positive signs” in the talks. In turn, the head of the Iranian delegation in Vienna, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in an interview with the Iranian state TV channel IRIB, said that an agreement has already been reached on the lifting of sanctions on the energy sector, including oil and gas, on the automotive industry, the financial and banking sector, as well as on port operations. However, the battle ahead is over the most complex procedural issues – who, when and in what order will begin to return to their obligations under the nuclear agreement. The fate of the JCPOA depends on their decision.