Negotiations to save the international Iranian nuclear agreement are making "
modest progress
", noted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, January 20, but they are still too slow given the acceleration of Tehran's nuclear activities, according to his French counterpart.
Read alsoIranian nuclear: Israel opens the door to an agreement
“
My personal assessment, having spoken to all our colleagues, is that a return to mutual compliance remains possible
,” Antony Blinken said in Berlin after talks with his European counterparts.
“
We have seen, I would say, modest progress over the past two weeks in the talks
” in Vienna, he added.
“Partial, timid, slow” progress
For his part, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned him that the negotiation “
cannot continue at such a slow pace
”.
Judging the progress in the talks "
partial, timid and slow
", the minister judged that there was "an
urgent need to change the pace, otherwise it will inevitably be the end of the JCPOA (the Vienna Nuclear Agreement). Iranian),
” he told a press conference in Berlin.
The month of “
February will be absolutely decisive.
We don't have much time
left,” a French diplomatic source told AFP.
Earlier, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also called for "
urgent progress
" in the tough negotiations which resumed in November.
"
We need very, very urgent progress,
" said the head of diplomacy as a timid revival of optimism has accompanied the talks in Vienna for several weeks, after a difficult start.
"The Decisive Phase"
"
The Vienna negotiations are not entering a decisive phase, but 'THE' decisive phase
", she added, stressing that "
we are literally running out of time
".
Because "
in parallel to the discussions, Iran unfortunately continues to spin the spiral of nuclear escalation
", accused Annalena Baerbock after her interview with Antony Blinken.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden also showed himself to be relatively optimistic about the possibility of saving the nuclear agreement with Iran, assuring that the time has “
not yet come to abandon
” the discussions.
Read alsoIran: “France seeks to have a more serious role in nuclear discussions”
He assured that Washington was "
in unison
" with the other signatory countries (Russia, France, China, United Kingdom and Germany) of the agreement concluded in 2015 with Iran, and from which Donald Trump had withdrawn the States States three years later.
This agreement offered Tehran the lifting of part of the international sanctions in exchange for a drastic reduction of its ambitions in the nuclear sector, placed under the strict control of the UN.
But after the unilateral American withdrawal, Tehran gradually abandoned its commitments.
The United States in turn imposed sanctions.
Talks were relaunched in November in Vienna to bring Washington back to this pact and bring Tehran back to respecting its commitments.
