Tehran: Absence of US Decision the Only Obstacle in Vienna

Kamal Kharazi and Robert Malley participate in separate sessions of the Doha Forum, EPA
Kamal Kharazi and Robert Malley participate in separate sessions of the Doha Forum, EPA
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Tehran: Absence of US Decision the Only Obstacle in Vienna

Kamal Kharazi and Robert Malley participate in separate sessions of the Doha Forum, EPA
Kamal Kharazi and Robert Malley participate in separate sessions of the Doha Forum, EPA

Iran informed the European mediator at the Vienna talks that the “political decision” in Washington was the “last obstacle” to reaching an agreement, calling for US “realism.”

However, US Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley expressed doubts about reaching an agreement, stressing that sanctions will be kept on Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. Malley revealed that no decision has been reached on removing the Iranian military apparatus from the list of terrorist organizations.

Enrique Mora, deputy secretary-general of the European External Action Service and coordinator for nuclear talks, had met with the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran.

In a short meeting, Amir-Abdollahian told Mora that the main obstacle now facing the Vienna talks is the absence of a US decision.

“The other parties, especially the US government, should follow a realistic approach to resolving the remaining issue,” the minister told Mora, according to Fars News Agency.

Other officials who discussed the Vienna talks with Mora include the Iranian top negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani.

Mora, who coordinates talks between Iran and the US, arrived in Tehran late Saturday and on Sunday met Iran's chief negotiator Ali Bagheri, state news agency IRNA reported.

“Bagheri stressed that an agreement can be reached if the American side is realistic,” it added.

Mora is expected to meet other officials, according to IRNA.

“Working on closing the remaining gaps in the Vienna talks on the JCPOA,” Mora tweeted ahead of his trip. “We must conclude this negotiation. Much is at stake.”

His visit comes as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday saw a renewed accord within “days.”

“We are very close but there are still some issues pending,” Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of the Doha Forum in Qatar.

“I cannot tell you when or how, but it is a matter of days.”

Parties have signaled for weeks that the negotiations are close to an agreement, but that “political decisions” are required from Tehran and Washington.



Russia Launches Nearly 150 Drones against Ukraine as Trump Doubts Putin's Desire for Peace

FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Russia Launches Nearly 150 Drones against Ukraine as Trump Doubts Putin's Desire for Peace

FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Russia launched a sweeping drone assault and airstrikes across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, killing at least four people, officials said, after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war.
Three people died and four were wounded Sunday morning in airstrikes on Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, the regional prosecutor's office said. Another person died and a 14-year-old girl was wounded in a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, local Gov. Serhii Lysak said.
The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last August. Ukrainian officials said the fighting in Kursk was still ongoing.
Trump said Saturday that he doubts Putin wants to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were “ very close to a deal.”
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump also hinted at further sanctions against Russia.
The Trump-Zelenskyy conversation on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral was the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since they argued during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February.
Russia fired 149 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that 57 were intercepted and another 67 jammed.
One person was wounded in drone attacks on the Odesa region and one other in the city of Zhytomyr. Four people were also wounded in a Russian airstrike on the city of Kherson on Sunday morning, according to local officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that air defenses shot down five Ukrainian drones in the border region of Bryansk, as well as three drones over the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Five people were wounded when Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city’s Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.