Iran nuclear talks to resume with world powers after five-month hiatus - The Guardian

Expectations of salvaging 2015 deal low amid fears Iran is covertly boosting nuclear programme.

Talks between world powers and Iran on salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal will resume in Vienna on Monday after a five-month hiatus, but expectations of a breakthrough are low.

The scale of Iran’s negotiating demands, ideological outlook of Iran’s new administration and western fears that Iran is covertly boosting its nuclear programme has created a sense of pessimism.

Joe Biden has offered to take the US back into the nuclear deal that Donald Trump left in 2018, but Iran and the US are in dispute over the precise US sanctions that must be lifted, and how Iran would reverse the multiple steps it has taken to build its nuclear programme in breach of the deal.

Western diplomats admit they are unclear whether the new regime wants a deal or is playing for time covertly to strengthen its nuclear programme.

Robert Malley, the head of the US negotiating team, said: “If that’s Iran’s approach, which is to try to use the negotiations as cover for an accelerated nuclear programme, and as I say, drag its feet at the nuclear table, we will have to respond in a way that is not our preference.

Ground covered but not resolved in the talks include the extent of sanctions relief, how to verify that sanctions have been lifted and how Iran expects European nations to respond if the US was to leave the agreement again.