Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


World Powers Meeting in Vienna to Save Iran Nuclear Deal Face New Setback

Michael Lipin

   Five world powers trying to save their 2015 nuclear deal with Iran from
   U.S. efforts to overturn it are grappling with a new setback as they
   meet with Iranian officials in Vienna Friday.

   A day before Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia were to hold
   talks with Iran in the Austrian capital, Moscow said it was suspending
   its work to reconfigure Iran's underground Fordow nuclear facility for
   civilian medical research. The Trump administration had warned last
   month that it would revoke a waiver shielding Moscow from U.S.
   sanctions against the Fordow project starting Dec. 15.

   TVEL, a unit of Russian state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom, had
   been working on the Fordow project since 2017. The project had been one
   of several that Iran agreed to undertake with international companies
   to modify various Iranian nuclear sites in ways that would ensure their
   peaceful, civilian uses, rather than military ones.

   Those projects were part of the 2015 deal in which Iran accepted
   restrictions on its nuclear activities in return for six world powers
   giving it relief from international sanctions.

   The U.S. withdrew from that agreement last year, saying it did not do
   enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons or engaging in
   other perceived malign activities. Tehran has said its nuclear
   ambitions are solely peaceful.

.