Time running out to reach Iran nuclear deal, warn experts

Year-long talks in Vienna on reviving the deal and for the US, which was pulled out of the agreement by Donald Trump, to lift sanctions on Iran have in effect ground to a halt in a dispute over whether the west will lift the foreign terrorist organisation designation, and sanctions, against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Washington says the sanctions on the IRGC do not relate to the nuclear deal, but to its long-term terrorist behaviour in the region, including in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

The signatories to the open letter, coordinated the European Leadership Network, include former senior diplomats in 14 countries including the former foreign secretary Jack Straw, former defence secretaries Lord King and Des Browne, as well as the former Conservative Middle East minister Alistair Burt.

The US left the nuclear deal in 2018. Joe Biden on his election as president said he wanted to rejoin so long as Iran came back into compliance with the agreement on nuclear non-proliferation.

One proposal that Israel fears the US administration will adopt is to retain sanctions on the elite foreign arm of the IRGC, the al-Quds force, but lift the designation on the IRGC domestically.