EU Top Envoy to Iran Nuclear Talks Says Confident Deal Will Be Reached

Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Enrique Mora, speaks to the media outside a hotel, during a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, in Vienna, Austria, May 19, 2021. (Reuters)
Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Enrique Mora, speaks to the media outside a hotel, during a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, in Vienna, Austria, May 19, 2021. (Reuters)
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EU Top Envoy to Iran Nuclear Talks Says Confident Deal Will Be Reached

Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Enrique Mora, speaks to the media outside a hotel, during a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, in Vienna, Austria, May 19, 2021. (Reuters)
Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Enrique Mora, speaks to the media outside a hotel, during a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, in Vienna, Austria, May 19, 2021. (Reuters)

The EU official leading talks to revive Iran's nuclear deal said on Wednesday he was "quite sure" an agreement would be reached as the negotiations adjourned for a week.

The talks resumed in Vienna on May 7 with the remaining parties to the deal - Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - meeting in the basement of a luxury hotel, and the United States based in another hotel across the street.

Iran has refused to hold direct talks with the United States on how to resume compliance with the deal, which former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, prompting Tehran to begin violating its terms about a year later.

"I am quite sure that there will be a final agreement... I think we are on the right track and we will get an agreement," Enrique Mora, who is coordinating indirect talks between Iran and the United States, told reporters at the end of a fourth round of negotiations in Vienna.

Russia's envoy, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Twitter that participants felt there had been good progress after the latest round and that a deal was "within reach". Ulyanov said he hoped that next week would be the final round.

Asked if he was saying there would be a deal in the next round, Mora said: "I cannot venture such a prediction. What I can venture is that there will be an agreement, yeah, sure."

'Good' progress
Ahead of the meeting, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi told Iranian state TV there had been "good" progress in the talks but "several key issues needed further discussions".

The crux of the original agreement was that Iran committed to rein in its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain the fissile material for a nuclear weapon in return for relief from US, EU and UN sanctions.

"An agreement is shaping up. Now a common understanding on what still needed for US return to #JCPOA, lifting of related sanctions and the resumption of nuclear commitments by Iran," Mora said on Twitter, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Officials have said they hope to reach a deal by May 21, when an agreement between Tehran and the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, on continued monitoring of some Iranian nuclear activities is due to expire.

Mora said Iran was continuing to negotiate with the IAEA on extending that agreement.



Pro-Palestinian NGOs Sue Dutch Gov't over Israel Support

A Palestinian flag is removed from a building by Israeli authorities after being put up by an advocacy group that promotes coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (AP)
A Palestinian flag is removed from a building by Israeli authorities after being put up by an advocacy group that promotes coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (AP)
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Pro-Palestinian NGOs Sue Dutch Gov't over Israel Support

A Palestinian flag is removed from a building by Israeli authorities after being put up by an advocacy group that promotes coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (AP)
A Palestinian flag is removed from a building by Israeli authorities after being put up by an advocacy group that promotes coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (AP)

Pro-Palestinian groups took the Dutch state to court Friday, urging a halt to arms exports to Israel and accusing the government of failing to prevent what they termed a genocide in Gaza.

The NGOs argued that Israel is breaking international law in Gaza and the West Bank, invoking, amongst others, the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention set up in the wake of the Holocaust.

"Israel is guilty of genocide and apartheid" and "is using Dutch weapons to wage war", said Wout Albers, a lawyer representing the NGOs.

"Dutch weapons are killing children, every day, in Palestine, including my family," said Ahmed Abofoul, a legal advisor to Al Haq, one of the groups involved in the suit, AFP reported.

Israel furiously denies accusations of genocide as it presses on with the offensive in Gaza it began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

Opening the case at the court in The Hague, judge Sonja Hoekstra noted: "It is important to underline that the gravity of the situation in Gaza is not contested by the Dutch State, nor is the status of the West Bank."

"Today is about finding out what is legally in play and what can be expected of the State, if the State can be expected to do more, or act differently than it is currently acting," she added.

She acknowledged this was a "sensitive case", saying: "It's a whole legal debate."

The lawyer for the Dutch State, Reimer Veldhuis, said the Netherlands has been applying European laws in force for arms exports.

Veldhuis argued the case should be tossed out.

"It is unlikely that the minister responsible will grant an arms export licence to Israel that would contribute to the Israeli army's activities in Gaza or the West Bank," said Veldhuis.