Negotiations on how to bring both the United States and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal will take place among all parties in Vienna next week, but there will be no direct talks between Iran and the United States, the participants agreed in a virtual meeting on Friday.
Restoring the nuclear agreement would signify a major improvement in the estranged relationship between Iran and the United States.
How to sequence the return of both countries to the terms of the deal has been a complicated political and technical question, with both sides insisting the other move first. The Vienna talks, which will begin on Tuesday, will be the first serious effort since President Biden took office to figure out how that can happen.
Mr. Biden wants to return to the deal, negotiated while he was vice president in the Obama administration, which placed tough but temporary limits on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for lifting American and international sanctions on Tehran.
Indirect talks in Vienna between Iran and the United States, carried out in person through intermediaries, will seek to agree on a road map on how to synchronize steps to return to their commitments, including the lifting of economic sanctions, a U.S. official said.
The United States would not seek to retain some sanctions for leverage, the official said, arguing that the previous "maximum pressure" campaign waged against Iran by the Trump administration had failed.
