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Nuclear deal talks between the West and Iran may soon be restarted after a visit by EU envoy Enrique Mora to Tehran.
“The negotiations had stalled and now they have been reopened,” said the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, as quoted by the AFP, on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Germany.
“There is a perspective of reaching a final agreement,” Borrell also said.
The latest round of talks between the signatories of the original Iran nuclear deal has stalled for weeks due to seemingly irreconcilable differences, diminishing hopes of the official return of Iranian crude to international oil markets at a time when global supply is getting increasingly tight because of Western sanctions on Russia.
The latest news from Tehran, however, could help rekindle that hope, but concessions would need to be made. Lately, the main sticking point appears to be the designation of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization by the United States.
According to Borrell, Mora took to Tehran the message that “we couldn’t continue like this,” which, the EU foreign policy chief said, received a “positive enough” answer from the Iranian side.
“These kind of things cannot be solved overnight. Let’s say things were blocked and they have been deblocked,” Borrell said.
Meanwhile, Iran has been working to boost its oil production and exports as well in anticipation of the lifting of U.S. sanctions, even though the chance of that happening dimmed during the past couple of months.
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In the first quarter, Iran exported 30 percent more oil than a year ago, at an average daily rate of 870,000 barrels, with the bulk still going to China, data from Kpler cited by the Wall Street Journal revealed in April. In March, analysts said that the removal of sanctions on Iranian oil could see half a million barrels daily added to global supply.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.
If the United States is ready to accept these terms, then a deal could be reached immediately. However, I doubt that the United States egged by Israel would agree and therein lies the rub.
Iranian negotiators are aware that the United States is in a hurry to reach a deal so it can focus all its energies on China and the Ukraine conflict. That is why they are dragging their feet to extract the maximum concessions from it and they will probably get them or there will be no deal.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London