Iran said Wednesday that the negotiations with western powers in Vienna over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program would resume by the end of November. The announcement was made by Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran's new chief negotiator on the nuclear issue. “Had a very serious & constructive dialogue with @enriquemora— on the essential elements for successful negotiations. We agree to start negotiations before the end of November,” Kani wrote on Twitter following a meeting with European officials in Brussels. "Exact date will be announced in the course of the next week,” he added. The talks in Vienna fell apart in June when hardliner Ebrahim Raisi won the Iranian presidential elections. Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018. On Monday, US Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley said that they are in a “critical phase” of the effort to resume talks on re-establishing the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA). “The official reasons given by Iran for why we’re in this hiatus are wearing very thin, particularly because at the same time as they are not coming to the table, they’re not prepared to discuss how we could resume mutual compliance for the JCPOA. They are taking steps to expand a nuclear program and they’re putting additional obstacles on the work of the IAEA, all of which has been in contradiction with what they claim to be their desire to come back to the JCPOA,” Malley said. He added that American allies share "deep and growing concern about the pace and direction of Iran’s nuclear progress” and that there is increasing “impatience” at the lack of resumption of negotiations. "At this point, it's hard to find an innocent explanation for why they are taking so long," Malley said. Adding “that the “window for diplomacy is never going to be closed,” Malley said that diplomacy will continue to be pursued “even as we pursue other steps” if needed. He went on to state that the window to revive the JCPOA will not remain open forever. He said that the U.S. has "given a lot of thought of what we would do" if Iran does not return to the Vienna talks. "We have ideas and we discussed them" with allies about how to move forward if Iran refuses to return to negotiations.
