Vienna 'Asparagus Palace' hides Iran nuclear tensions

VIENNA, 18 February 2022, (TON): The calm outside Vienna's luxury Palais Coburg hotel belied the fraught diplomatic talks on Iran's nuclear programme being thrashed out inside.

Aside from a few television cameras keeping watch for envoys arriving in black saloons, there are no indications that the negotiations to revive the 2015 deal could achieve a breakthrough or fail in the next few days.

The building, built by Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1845 on an old city wall bastion, was soon dubbed the "Asparagus Palace" by locals in the Austrian capital on account of its slender columns.

Behind the ornate facade, meetings have often stretched into the evening, including at weekends.

The Iranian delegation's refusal to sit around the same table as the United States means the EU's Enrique Mora, who is co-ordinating the talks, constantly shuttles between the two.

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