Iran Nuclear Deal Talks Stall As Tehran Accuses US Of Dragging Its Feet

Marathon talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal have hit a new roadblock, with Iran accusing the US of refusing to make the necessary political decisions to entrench the agreement in international law or to broaden the scope of economic sanctions that would be lifted by it.

- Patrick Wintour

The issue has from the outset dogged the talks in Vienna between the west, Russia, Iran and China – which have been underway since February. There is no sign that the eighth round of negotiations, once intended to be the final round, has reached the breakthrough some had been expecting.

In a tweet issued in multiple languages, Ali Shamkhani, the hardline secretary of Iran’s national security council, declared after speaking to his government’s negotiators that progress was becoming “more and more difficult”.

Expressing his frustration at the delays, he said: “The Vienna negotiations had reached a point where the outcome could be described definitively without the need for guesswork.

“A US political decision to accept the deal or refrain from accepting the requirements of a credible and lasting agreement based on the principles accepted in the nuclear agreement can replace speculation.”

The US, he said, kept proposing new initiatives essentially designed to evade its commitments.