Iranian funds and the release of Western prisoners, priority actors for reviving the nuclear deal

Although much of the new agreement is complete, and Western powers and Iran have established a series of steps to fully implement the revival of the nuclear deal, the various delegations from China, France, Germany, the United States, Britain, Russia, the EU and Iran are still negotiating certain details. As the countries have warned that the end of the negotiations is near, if a deal is not reached, the 2015 agreement will become obsolete. 

Iran and Western powers continue to negotiate the Iranian nuclear deal. In the draft presented, one of the conditions of the Iranian delegation is the unfreezing of the Persian country's funds, a total of 7 billion dollars are in South Korean banks under US sanctions, as well as the release of Western and Iranian prisoners with dual nationality accused of espionage detained in Iran, this last requirement is paramount for the formalisation of the agreement, according to the US delegate, Robert Malley.

Another key condition for salvaging the Iranian nuclear deal is the lifting of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, including those that have curtailed its crucial oil sales. "On oil exports, under the deal, Obama and Trump used to issue 90- to 120-day waivers and consistently renewed them until Trump stopped them after exiting the pact. Those waivers have been agreed to be reissued," a Middle East diplomat said. The new deal therefore involves the US granting waivers to sanctions on the Persian oil sector, rather than lifting them altogether.

The new 20-page agreement starts with the steps that nations have to pursue, once the new JCPOA has been approved. Followed by the phase, where Iran has to suspend uranium enrichment above 5% purity. The 2015 agreement limited uranium production to 3.67% purity fused, now, the country is enriching up to 60% purity, getting closer to weaponisation; as a consequence of the new agreement, Iran would have to restrict its nuclear activities in order that they cannot produce enough uranium and eventually create an atomic bomb. In principle, the Persian territory will return to the basic nuclear limit of 3.67% enrichment purity, diplomats said.

Once all these measures have been confirmed, the main phase will begin where sanctions will be lifted, culminating in the so-called "Re-implementation Day", a name designated by many diplomats as a reference to the "Implementation Day" of the original 2015 agreement. The duration of the various phases has not yet been agreed, although the draft does provide dates for important days. Some officials have estimated the expected time between the agreement and the 'Re-implementation Day' to be between one and three months.

Throughout, the Islamic Republic has maintained that its objectives are peaceful and that it has no intention of mastering the nuclear technology sector for civilian use. "We do not seek nuclear weapons, only to satisfy needs, as do other countries," explained Iranian leader Ali Khamenei during a speech commemorating the 1978 uprising. 

However, the powers claim that no other country has enriched itself as much as Iran without developing nuclear weapons. Moreover, they distrust the country because, on several occasions, it violated restrictions imposed in response to the administration's withdrawal from the deal in 2018, as well as its re-imposition of sanctions under the Trump administration. 

Also, after 10 months of negotiations, diplomats have reported that it is still not very clear whether the deal will be formalised because "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed".