VIENNA, 30 December 2021, (TON): Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said that he had met with the US Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Mally.

The eighth round of talks to re-establish a nuclear deal with Iran kicked off in the Austrian capital on Monday. The negotiators assume that weeks, not months, remain until an agreement is reached.

Ulyanov wrote on Twitter “today I met with the US special envoy for Iran, Robert Malli. Close consultations and coordination between the Russian and American delegations during the Vienna talks are an important prerequisite for progress in restoring the JCPOA.”

According to Ulyanov, the negotiators should focus on reaching an agreement by early February. Earlier, he noted that all the negotiators do not want to waste time and are focused on the early restoration of the JCPOA.

The previous, seventh round of negotiations in Vienna on the renewal of the JCPOA on the Iranian nuclear program started at the end of November. The main topic of the talks was the issue of lifting US sanctions from Tehran. On December 17, the completion of the seventh round of negotiations was announced. The parties reached an agreement on two draft agreements, in which the European side also included Iran’s position.