Thread by @lrozen

🧵I reported a couple weeks ago that diplomats interacting with the Iranian team ahead of the nuclear deal revival talks that resumed in Vienna yesterday said there was still a lack of clarity about what the Iranian position was. diplomatic.substack.com/p/iran-positio… 1/

“1 key question where there is still uncertainty, an official from a current party to the deal described, is whether Iran expects to pick up the talks where they left off after 6 rounds of talks in June, start talks from scratch, or something in between.
diplomatic.substack.com/p/iran-positio…

“Another diplomat from another nation in the deal, speaking not for attribution, also suggested that, even after recent consultations, he is still unclear what the Iranian position is.” 3/ diplomatic.substack.com/p/iran-positio…

“In a way, the paradox is, the Iranians say, ‘we want to go back to the JCPOA’ and ‘we want guarantees’... that are more than the JCPOA, the first official said. So they need to clarify this contradiction, he said.” diplomatic.substack.com/p/iran-positio…

Fast forward two weeks to now, and it seems this is still very much the question the European diplomats here are raising.

https://twitter.com/reutersiran/status/1465718353058832385

EU coordinator Mora used somewhat ambiguous language to address the issue yest. “The Iranian delegation..have accepted that the work done over the six first rounds is a good basis to build our work ahead, so no point in going back to… April. No, we will be building on the work

“done in the six previous rounds, and at the same time we will be of course incorporating the new political sensibilities of the new Iranian administration.” diplomatic.substack.com/p/sense-of-urg…

The Iranians themselves seem to want the all you can eat buffet option, of recognizing the work done in the past rounds (presumably including the roughly 1000 designations tentatively identified as could be lifted) but reserving right to revise. diplomatic.substack.com/p/sense-of-urg…