Iran plays hardball at Vienna meeting

Iran and world powers resumed talks on Monday after a five-month hiatus to try to salvage their 2015 nuclear deal, but with Tehran sticking to its tough stance and Western powers warning that it will not work, hopes of a breakthrough appeared slim.

Diplomats say time is running out to resurrect the pact, which then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, angering Iran and dismaying the other powers involved — Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia.

Six rounds of indirect talks were held between April and June.

The new round formally began with a meeting of the remaining parties to the deal, without the US, shortly after 2 p.m. GMT.

Enrique Mora, the EU official chairing the talks, said Tehran stuck to its demand that all sanctions be lifted.

But he added that he was positive after the first discussions in Vienna with the new Iranian negotiators, who, Mora said, had shown a desire to engage seriously.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a video address delivered to nations negotiating in Vienna, warned that he saw Iran trying to “end sanctions in exchange for almost nothing.”

In the video that he later posted to Twitter, Bennett said: “Iran deserves no rewards, no bargain deals and no sanctions relief in return for their brutality.”

He added: “I call upon our allies around the world: Do not give in to Iran’s nuclear blackmail.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called the meeting “the last opportunity for the Iranians to come to the table” after a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

“We want those talks to work,” Truss said. “But if they don’t work, all options are on the table.”

In an interview with NPR broadcast on Friday, US negotiator Robert Malley said signs from Iran “are not particularly encouraging.”

Russian envoy Mikhail Ulyanov said there was pressure to get the process moving after “a very protracted pause.”

“The talks can’t last forever,” he tweeted.

“There is the obvious need to speed up the process.”

Monday’s meeting in Vienna ended an extended break triggered by the election of Ebrahim Raisi in June as Iran’s president.

The talks are effectively indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington since Iran refuses to meet face-to-face with US envoys. Other officials shuttle between them.

Tehran’s negotiating team has set out demands that US and European diplomats consider unrealistic, Western diplomats say.

Iran has adopted an uncompromising position by demanding removal of all US and EU sanctions imposed since 2017, including those unrelated to its nuclear program, in a verifiable process.