Quincy Institute executive: Negotiators ‘very close’ to agreement on new Iran nuclear deal

A leading executive at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft said negotiators were “very, very close” to an agreement on a new Iran nuclear deal, with just a few kinks left to be worked out.

Trita Parsi, the executive vice president at the institute estimated that indirect negotiations between Iran and the U.S. were about 95 percent complete.

“I do suspect there is a decent likelihood the deal will be struck within the next week or two,” Parsi told Hill.TV on Tuesday. “The question is what happens afterwards.”

The U.S. and Iran entered into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015 under the Obama administration. The deal lifted sanctions on Iran in return for a commitment from the country not to build up nuclear weapons.

However, former President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018.

The Biden administration began indirect negotiations last year to reengage Iran, and are in the midst of an eighth round of indirect talks in Vienna, Austria.

Parsi said negotiators in Vienna have to resolve a few conflicts, including mechanisms to assure the U.S. can’t pull out of the deal again and an agreement on which economic sanctions to lift.

“But they’ve come so far, it seems quite difficult to imagine that they would get all of this way — all 95 percent done — and then allow it to fall on the last five percent,” he said.