Negotiators Hopeful on Iran Nuke Deal  08/08 06:13

   

   VIENNA (AP) -- Top negotiators in renewed talks to revive the 2015 Iran 
nuclear deal indicated Sunday that they are optimistic about the possibility of 
reaching an agreement to impose limits on Tehran's uranium enrichment.

   "We stand 5 minutes or 5 seconds from the finish line," Russian Ambassador 
Mikhail Ulyanov told reporters outside Vienna's Palais Coburg, four days into 
the talks. He said there are "3 or 4 issues" left to be resolved.

   "They are sensitive, especially for Iranians and Americans," Ulyanov said. 
"I cannot guarantee, but the impression is that we are moving in the right 
direction."

   Enrique Mora, the European Union's top negotiator, also said he is 
"absolutely" optimistic about the talks' progress so far.

   "We are advancing, and I expect we will close the negotiations soon," he 
told Iranian media.

   Negotiators from Iran, the U.S. and the European Union resumed indirect 
talks over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal Thursday after a months-long 
standstill in negotiations.

   Since the deal's de facto collapse, Iran has been running advanced 
centrifuges and rapidly growing its stockpile of enriched uranium.

   Iran struck the nuclear deal in 2015 with the U.S., France, Germany, 
Britain, Russia and China. The deal saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of 
uranium under the watch of U.N. inspectors in exchange for the lifting of 
economic sanctions.

   Then U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the 
accord in 2018, saying he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that didn't 
happen. Iran began breaking the deal's terms a year later.