Return to the Drawing Board
The old riddle of the chicken or the egg has sparked many arguments over the course of time. Recent negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, seemed to have gotten stuck in the similar reasoning: Will the U.S. lift its sanctions before Iran returns to compliance with the deal, or vice versa? Who should take the first step? In which way should the sanctions be lifted, step by step? Once and for all? These issues have become major hurdles in the JCPOA Joint Commission meetings in Vienna, Austria.
Senior diplomats from the EU, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran met behind closed doors on April 6 and
