Vienna Talks Begin to Revive Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA)

Indirect negotiations between the US Biden administration and Iran begin in Vienna, aiming to restore the 2015 nuclear deal after Trump's withdrawal — talks that ultimately failed.

Following the election of Joe Biden, who had pledged to rejoin the JCPOA, indirect nuclear talks opened in Vienna in April 2021. The US and Iran communicated through European intermediaries — a structural awkwardness reflecting the total absence of direct diplomatic relations. Several rounds of talks made progress, but negotiations were repeatedly stalled by Iran's election of hardline president Ebrahim Raisi in June 2021, Iran's increasingly hawkish positions, disputes over sanctions sequencing, and the assassination of nuclear scientists. By 2022, talks had effectively collapsed. Iran continued to enrich uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, and the JCPOA was widely declared dead in practice, with Iran operating thousands more centrifuges than permitted under the original deal.