Loitering munitions
In September 2019, the ragtag Houthi militia in Yemen attacked Saudi Arabia’s state-owned facility at Abqaiq, ‘the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world’ ~ their weapon was the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drone.
Senior Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi said that documents for an agreement on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, commonly known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), are almost ready.
“Today is the last day of the sixth round of talks (in the Austrian capital of Vienna). We have gone through very busy days and we are in a situation where we think all the documents for an agreement are almost ready,” Araqchi, who is also Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, said on Sunday.
“We are closer to an agreement ever than before, but bridging the gaps requires decisions by the parties,” he said, adding that some issues still need to be resolved.
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For the next few days, negotiations will be stopped and the parties will return to their countries, not for further consultations but for decision making, he noted, expressing hope for finalizing the agreement in the next session, reports Xinhua news agency.
The latest meeting of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA started last week with the participation of representatives from China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and Iran.
Top diplomats said Sunday that further progress had been made at talks between Iran and global powers to try to restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was abandoned by the Trump administration. They said it was now up to the governments involved in the negotiations to make political decisions.
It was the first official meeting since Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election last week.
The US government under former President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and unilaterally reimposed sanctions on Iran.
In response, Iran gradually stopped implementing parts of its JCPOA commitments from May 2019.
The JCPOA Joint Commission started its in-person meetings on April 6 in Vienna to continue previous discussions regarding a possible return of Washington to the deal and on how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the agreement.
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