Rrussia: Negotiations enter ‘drafting stage’
A high-profile Russian diplomat says talks in Vienna aimed at revitalizing a 2015 nuclear deal and bringing the United States back into it have moved ahead and entered "the drafting stage," but solutions to some of the issues are "still far away."
"Summing up the results of 2 weeks of deliberations on JCPOA restoration we can note with satisfaction that the negotiations entered the drafting stage," Russia's Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted on his official account on Monday.
"Practical solutions are still far away, but we have moved from general words to agreeing on specific steps towards the goal," the top Russian official added.
At the end of talks between representatives from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries - Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany -in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Saturday, the sides agreed to continue bilateral and multilateral negotiations as well as technical consultations within the next days.
Within the format of the JCPOA Joint Commission meetings in Vienna, two expert-level working groups have been set up to lift the US sanctions against Iran and coordinate Tehran's return to full compliance with its nuclear obligations under the deal.