Iran nuclear deal ‘in danger’, warns EU's top negotiator Josep Borrell

European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and EU's le negotiator in nuclear deal talks with Iran on Monday said that dialogue is "in danger" due to divergence in stance and disagreements held by Washington and Tehran. talks were likely to suffer a delock despite that initially, both sides issued a series of "reasonable responses" to  draft deal that was submitted in late July. In August talks gained traction with United States scrapping commercial sanctions that have depressed Iranian crude exports since 2018. On Monday, though, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was on brink of a stalemate, as both US and Iran have been losing confidence in finding a deal.

"We were converging to a closer position," said EU's foreign affairs representative Borrell, who has brokered negotiations between Iran and US.

"But n last interaction is not converging, [it] is diverging… If process doesn't converge, whole process is in danger," he continued. 

'I am less confident..' Borrell about JCPOA

Borrell expressed scepticism about reviving deal for first time since dialogue resumed as he said, "I'm sorry to say that I am less confident today about convergence of negotiation process and about prospect of closing deal right now." He declared that no heway was me during meetings for reinstitution of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement. Borrell h dispatched two sides, Tehran and Washington, a “final draft” of a possible agreement last month, but he now believes that neir of two parties has me any mutual decision.

Washington and Tehran have been unable to find a common ground with respect to status of a probe into Iran’s nuclear program by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). US has also rejected, downrightly, Iran’s demand that it must continue to receive economic benefits of sanctions relief even if deal later torpedoes.

“At a certain moment, my responsibility as co-ordinator is to say ‘that’s enough, this is most balanced text I can produce taking into account all views’,” Borrell said, referring to  draft text.  “n we started a process of interactions , an interactive process is good if it converges,” he said. “y  [US and Iran] were converging to a closer position. But n last interactions were not converging. It was diverging," according to Borrell.