Washington Hopes Iran's Lead Negotiator Returns to Vienna Talks with 'Positive View …

Negotiators have made significant progress in the last week on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal but very tough issues remain, a senior US State Department official said on Friday. The US official said he hoped Iran’s lead negotiator would return in the coming days to Vienna, where the talks are taking place, “with a positive view” but that even if he did, there were still difficult issues on the table. “We hope that when Iran comes back, it comes back in with a pre-disposition to try to resolve this quickly,” the official told reporters on condition that he not be named. “But there were still disagreements for which there is not a solution that’s on the table,” Reuters quoted him as saying. He declined to name the sticking points and would not be drawn on whether Washington had persuaded Tehran to agree to follow-on negotiations on its nuclear program, its development of ballistic missiles or support for regional proxies. The broad aim of the talks is to return to the original 2015 bargain of lifting sanctions against Iran, including those that have slashed its oil sales, in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities that extend the time Tehran…
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