Borrell: The Iranian Response To EU JCPOA Proposal Was "Reasonable"

The EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell, the driving force behind renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran, has described Iran's comments on the EU proposal as, "reasonable," as the wait continues for a formal US response.

• Borrell: "There was an Iranian response that I think was reasonable. We are awaiting [the US] response and I hope that this response will allow us to complete the negotiations. I hope for that but I can't assure you of it. The response was supposed to have come already. A meeting was foreseen in Vienna towards the end of last week. It wasn't possible. It's possible that happens during this week."
• Borrell's uncharacteristically unreserved comments were made in Spanish at a press conference on sidelines of the Quo Vadis seminar in Spain and confirmed that the EU delegation expected a response from the US over the weekend, to be followed by a Joint Commission, called by the EU to ratify a final deal this week.
• WSJ's Laurence Norman: "[Borrell's] also giving ammo to the Iranian argument now that the U.S. is procrastinating on its response under political, diplomatic pressure. By confirming he'd foreseen a Vienna Joint Commission meeting last week, he's putting pressure on Washington over response timing."
• Yesterday, US President Joe Biden held a call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the three European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal, to gauge opinion ahead of a formal response.
• A US readout of the call says that the leaders discussed the ongoing negotiations and, “the need to strengthen support for partners in the Middle East region.” This is understood to include convincing Israel of the merits of a revised nuclear accord.
• There is still a long way to go for a final JCPOA deal. The United States Congress must ratify a deal and the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator James Risch (R-ID) said over the weekend: "These demands from Iran are blackmail and would go down in history as a major Biden foreign policy failure, coming on the heels of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Not to mention this deal will threaten the safety of our partners and Americans in the region."