(VIENNA) Iran has provided European powers involved in its tattered nuclear deal...

(VIENNA) Iran has provided European powers involved in its tattered nuclear deal with drafts on sanctions removal and nuclear commitments, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said on Thursday, as world powers and Tehran try to reinstate the pact.

The announcement came on the fourth day of indirect talks between Iran and the United States on bringing both fully back into the deal. The talks resumed after a five-month hiatus prompted by Iran’s election of an anti-Western hardliner as president.

« We have delivered two proposed drafts to them…Of course they need to check the texts that we have provided to them. If they are ready to continue the talks, we are in Vienna to continue the talks, » Iran’s Ali Bagheri Kani told reporters.

A European diplomat in Vienna confirmed draft documents had been handed over.

Under the pact, Tehran limited its uranium enrichment programme, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons though Iran says it seeks only civilian atomic energy, in exchange for relief from U.S., European Union and U.N. economic sanctions.
But in 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal, calling it too soft on Iran, and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions, spurring Tehran to breach nuclear limits in the pact.

« We want all sanctions to be lifted at once, » Bagheri told reporters. He said an Iranian proposal regarding how to verify the removal of sanctions – Tehran’s overriding priority in the talks – would be handed over to the European parties later.
A senior European diplomat estimatedon Tuesday that 70-80% of a draft deal on salvaging the 2015 accord was completed when Iran and world powers last met in June, though it remained unclear if Tehran would resume talks where they left off.

While Bagheri Kani had said everything negotiated during six rounds of talks between April and June was open for discussion, a member of Iran’s delegation said « elements in the previous unapproved draft that were in conflict with the nuclear deal were revised and gaps were filled » in Iran’s submitted drafts.