Although Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign
minister, avoided visiting Vienna, the Austrian capital, in protest against the
European nation’s sympathy towards Israel, the team involved in talks to revive
the JCPOA, the 2015 nuclear deal, are to stay in the city.
Mr Zarif cited the display of Israeli flag on the
top of a prominent Austrian building for the cancellation of his visit at the
eleventh hour; he continued to visit Spain as planned, though.
The Iranian team involved in the talks over the
nuclear deal, however, are going to stay in Vienna and continue talks with the
signatories of the JCPOA.
They had fourth round of talks last week and the
speculations were ripe that a breakthrough was imminent; the rising tension in
the Middle East, however, may have hampered the progress in a few ways, as Iran
is known as a strong supporter of the Hamas.
In another development, Iranian media is very
critical of major Sunni Arab states such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia for not
taking a strong stand against Israel; it just accuses them of paying lip
service, to be precise.
There were moves recently to restore strained ties
between Iran and Saudi Arabia; although the latter was more keen than the
former to reset the ties, the former was cautiously optimistic about the
prospect of a sustainable success; with the recent military developments in the
region, the chasm between the two nation could only grow wider or even to the
extent where it was a few months back; the Iranian media just reflects the mood
of the higher echelons of the Iranian administration.
Some analysts believe that Saudi Arabia made the
peace overtures, having come under constant drone and missile attacks from
Iran-backed Houthis. The talks between the two countries – and back-door
communications before that – do not appear to have produced any meaningful results;
Houthis targeted the Kingdom again, this week using their deadly combination of
explosive-laden drones and missiles.
Although Iran condemn Israel against its attacks in
the Gaza strip, it exercises restraint not to jeopardize the on-going talks
over the nuclear deal; nor does it want to upset the US unnecessarily for trivial point-scoring within its sphere of
influence in the region.
Iran cannot let go of this opportunity either,
having suffered tremendously under the US sanctions. The outbreaks of the
Coronavirus made the economic situation worse and the need of petro-dollars has
never been higher.
In all probability, the situation in the Gaza will
settle down in a few more days and the revival of the JCPOA – and the arrival
of Iranian oil into the markets – is more realistic than it has been in the
past three years.
