China: Ukraine developments won’t affect Vienna talks

Wang Qun told reporters in Vienna on Friday that negotiators remain focused on the talks to revive the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, (JCPOA).

“We are in the final stage of negotiations and political decisions must be made to reach an agreement”, Wang Qun added.

Meanwhile, in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian reiterated that the Islamic Republic will not back down from its red lines in the negotiations.

Amir Abdollahian and Sergei Lavrov discussed and reviewed the latest developments related to the Vienna talks.

“We have always supported Iran’s position in Vienna and we have good cooperation with our Iranian friends in Vienna and we will continue this cooperation,” Lavrov said during the phone conversation.

The eighth round of the talks between Iran and the P4+1 namely Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany began on December 27.

Most of the delegations acknowledge that the talks have reached a critical stage. The diplomacy seems to be approaching a make or break moment.

Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani, who is in the capital Tehran for consultations, said recently that being near the finish line does not guarantee crossing that.

Ali Bagheri Kani says to finish the job, there are certain decisions that the Western parties to the negotiations need to take.

Since the beginning of the talks in Vienna last year, Iran has insisted that America must remove all sanctions imposed on Tehran after its unilateral pullout from the deal in May 2018 in a verifiable manner. It has also demanded that Washington provide guarantees that it will not leave the JCPOA again.