The joint virtual session between the Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna about the regional and international issues was held on Monday, May 17, 2021.  

The session was attended by Dr.Mohammad KazemSajjadpour, Deputy Minister of MOFA & President of IPIS; Mr.Majid Ghafelebashi, Research Deputy at the Center; Ali khoshroo and Mohammad Taghi Hosseini, Senior Experts at IPIS; Emil Brix, President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna; Heinz Gartner, and Markus Kornprobst, Senior Researchers at the said academy.

The session was held in the form of two panels, “The JCPOA and the Iran/EU Perspective of Relations”, and “  TheFuture Trends of International Relations”, to answer the following questions, (1) What is the perspective of the JCPOA and how will it be influenced by recent developments? (2) What are the challenges and opportunities lying ahead of the Iran/EU ties? (3) What is the impact of the coronavirus on international relations, and will coronavirus effect fundamental changes in the international relations? (4) What has been the impact of the coronavirus on the domestic atmosphere of countries, especially the US elections? 

Here are the most important issues touched upon at the session:

• The maximum pressure policy of the former US administration against the Islamic Republic of Iran eventually failed. For this, the new US administration decided to put aside much of the legacy of Trump’s administration, including the US withdrawal from the JCPOA. Therefore, we are witnessing the start of the process of nuclear talks to return the US to the agreement, although some indications in the current negotiations process show that the US is still seeking to retain some of trump’s legacy of sanctions, a subject that may prolong the current negotiations.
• The Iran/EU relations, especially after the implementation of the JCPOA in 2015 expanded in trade and economic areas. However, with the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, the EU countries failed to meet their commitments and in practice we witnessed a downward trend in economic ties in the recent period. In this relation, the European countries, Austria included, can play a major role in reviving the JCPOA. Austria, as an impartial EU country can play a more important intermediary role and advance a multilateralist trend for settling the differences.
•  The corona pandemic has made the world faced with a fundamental change which can be termed a turning point in the history of international relations and creation of a new world order. The corona pandemic has changed many of the regulations, laws, habits, customs, lifestyles, trade and structures. The corona pandemic, in addition to creating a health crisis and political and social disorder in the world order, has caused much security concerns on the regional and international dimensions.