EU coordinator Mora due in Iran to discuss outstanding issues on JCPOA revival

The European Union’s deputy foreign policy chief, Enrique Mora, is expected to visit Tehran to hold talks with senior Iranian officials on the outstanding issues pertaining to the revival of the 2015.

Mora, who is also the head of the Joint Commission of the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will arrive in Tehran on Tuesday, Iran's Nour News website, affiliated with the country's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), reported on Saturday.

"Given the European Union's role in exchanging views between Tehran and Washington, Enrique Mora's trip to Tehran could be seen as a new step in constructive consultations on a few but important issues [which have remained in the Vienna talks]," it added.

The EU coordinator plans to meet Iran's top negotiator to the Vienna talks Ali Bagheri Kani on Wednesday.

Several rounds of negotiations between Iran and the five remaining parties to the JCPOA -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- have been held in the Austrian capital since April 2021 to bring the US back into the Iran deal. The Vienna talks, however, exclude American diplomats due to their country’s withdrawal from the deal.

Talks have been on hold since March as the US insists on its refusal to remove Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its foreign terrorist organization list.

Iran maintains that IRGC’s designation in 2019 was part of former president Donald Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran, and therefore, it has to be reversed unconditionally.

The Joe Biden administration disagrees, even though it has admitted on countless occasions that Trump’s maximum pressure policy has been a disastrous failure. It has retained the IRGC’s designation and the economic sanctions as leverage in the talks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said last month that the current administration in Washington should have the courage to correct its predecessor’s mistakes concerning re-imposition of oppressive sanctions against Iran.

US admin. should have the courage to correct past mistakes: Iran FM on sanctions

Iran says the US’s current administration should have the courage to correct its predecessor’s mistakes concerning re-imposition of sanctions.

“The United States’ current administration should have the audacity to rectify the White House’s past mistakes,” he said.

EU attempts to save JCPOA with last-ditch effort: Borrell

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also said on Saturday that the bloc is making a last-ditch attempt to save the JCPOA and break the existing deadlock.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Borrell added that he was seeking a “middle way” to end the impasse, which threatens to scupper more than a year of diplomatic efforts between Iran and the P4+1 group of countries, coordinated by the EU.

According to the FT, Borrell is weighing a scenario whereby the designation on the IRGC is lifted, but kept in place on other parts of the organization.

The report also cited Borrell as saying that negotiators would not give Iran an ultimatum.

Iranian MPs: US must give Congress-approved guarantee it won’t quit Iran deal again

The majority of Iran’s lawmakers say the US government must give a legally firm guarantee that it will not quit the Iran deal again.

In a statement signed by over 250 members of the Iranian Parliament last month, the majority of the parliamentarians said that in order for a new agreement on the JCPOA revival to be successful, the US government must give a legally firm guarantee that it will not quit that agreement again.

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