Two months after negotiators left Vienna, expectations are fading that Iran nuclear talks will resume, leaving the world with the remains of an agreement no one’s willing to pronounce dead.
A media tent erected in anticipation of a grand announcement has been quietly dismantled, showy multilateral powwows in the Austrian capital giving way to furtive messages exchanged between the U.S. and Iran via the European coordinator.
European Union envoy Enrique Mora is in Tehran this week for a last-ditch effort to revive the landmark 2015 accord, which curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief, including on oil. The ruler of Qatar, a Gulf Arab state which enjoys unusually good ties with Iran, also arrived Thursday in a bid to lend new momentum to the process.