DidarNews-Hooman Majd*: I'm obviously not in Vienna, and we don't have the details of the documents that Iran has presented. Based on what the other parties say, it appears that they believe Iran is demannding more than what it had agreed to in June, and its demands go beyond the scope of what is permitted in the JCPOA. Regardless, Iran has suggested that the documents are negotiable, but right now there is a tremendous amount of pessimism on the US/EU side as to how to narrow the gaps.
There also appears to be some outside pressure, mostly by Israel, for the US/EU to stand firm or even abandon the talks. Given that Iran views its position as the logical one--the US left the deal so the US has to make amends--and given that the US/EU want Iran to forget about the past and focus purely on how to get back to the limits imposed by the JCPOA, I sense that the two sides are very far apart in terms of getting to place where there might be some optimism that the deal can be revived in 2022.
So in conclusion I would say that the odds of a deal be agreed in the coming days are very low. And 2022 presents its own challenge in that Iran's nuclear program progresses while the US, at least, as midterm elections to be concerned with. It is my own opinion that the initial delay by the Biden administration in starting the talks and the process to return to the JCPOA, and the subsequent Iranian delay in re-commencing the talks have both been unhelpful. But we'll have to see.
* Iranian-American journalist
