Iran’s indirect talks with the United States on the reactivation of the 2015 nuclear pact will resume soon, says the Iranian foreign minister amid the European Union’s top diplomat’s impulse to break a deadlock of months. duration in negotiations.
Key points:
- Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell to discuss the resumption of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.
- EU says it will facilitate talks between the two nations to help resolve “outstanding issues”
- Talks had stalled mainly because the United States classified the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran as a terrorist organization.
“We are ready to resume talks in the coming days. What is important for Iran is to fully receive the economic benefits of the 2015 agreement,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said. who had held a “long but positive meeting” with the EU. Josep Borrell, head of foreign policy.
The pact seemed about to recover in March when the EU, which coordinates the negotiations, invited foreign ministers representing the parties to the agreement in Vienna to conclude an agreement after 11 months of indirect talks. between Tehran and the administration of US President Joe Biden.
But talks have stalled since then, mainly over Tehran’s insistence that Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its elite security force, from the Foreign Terrorist Organization’s list. USA.
“We are expected to resume talks in the coming days and break the deadlock. Three months have passed and we need to speed up work,” Borrell said at a televised press conference in Tehran.
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“I am very pleased with the decision that has been made in Tehran and Washington.”
Two officials, an Iranian and a European, told Reuters before Mr. Borrell, who “remains to resolve two issues, including one on sanctions,” says Iran’s foreign ministry has not confirmed or denied it.
“We agreed to resume negotiations between Iran and the US in the coming days, facilitated by my team, to resolve the latest outstanding issues,” Borrell tweeted, without specifying the location.
“And the next few days mean the next few days. I mean, quickly, immediately.”
Borrell, however, seemed to downplay the possibility of an impending deal.
“I can’t predict … we are pushing for it. I appreciate the goodwill of the Iranian side. There is also goodwill from the American side,” he said at a news conference posted on an EU website.
Iran’s top security official, Ali Shamkhani, said Iran will continue to develop its nuclear program until the West changes its “illegal behavior,” Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.
“Iran’s retaliatory actions in the nuclear sector are only legal and rational responses to U.S. unilateralism and European inaction and will continue as long as illegal Western practices are not modified,” Shamkhani said.
Shamkhani did not detail what practices he was referring to.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal, under which Iran agreed to halt its nuclear program in exchange for easing economic sanctions.
The withdrawal of the U.S. and its re-imposition of crippling sanctions caused Iran to begin violating its basic nuclear limits a year later.
Western powers fear that Iran will be closer to being able to produce a nuclear bomb if it decides to do so, although Iran says its intentions are entirely peaceful.
Reuters
Posted 10 hours ago 10 hours, Saturday, June 25, 2022 at 1:52 PM, updated 5 hours, 5 hours ago, Saturday, June 25, 2022 at 6:46 PM