Thread by @lrozen

third round of Iran talks in Vienna seems to have wrapped up. Russian perm rep to IAEA says a fourth round will convene at the end of next week. In the meantime, experts will continue drafting

https://twitter.com/Amb_Ulyanov/status/1388502069728907267

He further suggests participants have given themselves an aspirational goal of seeing if they can reach an understanding in three weeks. (caution: almost all of these deadlines in jcpoa talks were blown through.)

https://twitter.com/amb_ulyanov/status/1388508671597064196?s=21

I reported on Thursday that progress was slow this round. diplomatic.substack.com/p/slow-progres…

photo of Joint Commission meeting today as third round wraps up, courtesy of @AlainMatton. Next JC meeting apparently expected the end of next week.

E3 statement: “We have much work, and little time, left. Against that background, we would have hoped for more progress this week. We have yet to come to an understanding on the most critical points. Success is by no means guaranteed, but not impossible.”

Russia’s Ulyanov: “We should not expect breakthroughs in the days to come. We need simply to continue diplomatic, day-to-day work, & we have all the reasons to expect that..the final outcome will be successful & it will come quite soon, in a few wks.” reuters.com/article/us-ira…

“The break in talks was widely expected as diplomats said officials from several countries are also involved in the Group of Seven foreign ministers’ meeting in London that begins on Monday and ends on Wednesday.” reuters.com/article/us-ira…

Iran DepFM Araghchi: “Discussions have reached a maturity & have become clearer. Distances & differences have become more specific & clearer...The process is slow, but it is moving forward... We cannot fully predict when we will reach an agreement.”

https://twitter.com/abasaslani/status/1388516960061825031?s=21

would seem the expectations setting between the different parties after the third sound seems a lot closer together than the last time. general consensus: it is a slog.

Notable: almost every week, there is some explosive event that seems like it could impact the talks—the natanz sabotage op, the Zarif tapes...—and yet they seem to just keep chugging along.

How were the final days of talks?
“Not bad,” one diplomat at the Vienna talks told me. “Rumors of alleged stagnation are wrong.”