clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Iran official says nuclear deal talks depend on US ‘political decision’

May 25, 2021 at 11:52 am

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh in Tehran, Iran on 5 October 2020 [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency]

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said yesterday that achieving results in the Vienna talks aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between his country and world powers depend on Washington making a “political decision” in this regard.

“We have made very important progress and we still believe that an agreement is something within reach,” Khatibzadeh told reporters, adding that the talks “could easily lead to results if a political decision is taken in Washington.”

He explained that a decision of this kind should include the current administration’s departure from the previous US administration’s policy including the policy of “maximum pressure” towards the Islamic Republic.

Khatibzadeh warned that the upcoming fifth round of talks “may extend for a longer period than expected if the American team continues to return to Vienna to preserve the failed legacy” of the administration of former President Donald Trump.

Earlier on Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC’s This Week show that the United States has not yet seen whether Iran will move to comply with its nuclear commitments in order to have sanctions removed even as talks have shown progress.

“Iran, I think, knows what it needs to do to come back into compliance on the nuclear side, and what we haven’t yet seen is whether Iran is ready and willing to make a decision to do what it has to do,” Blinken said.

READ: China backs Iran’s ‘reasonable demands’ on nuclear deal 

“That’s the test and we don’t yet have an answer,” he added

For his part, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, announced that the agency had agreed with Iran to extend a technical agreement reached in February for another month.

The agreement allows the watchdog to maintain its monitoring equipment at Iranian nuclear sites, but Iran will keep the tapes until the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is restored and United States sanctions are lifted.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif yesterday said the lifting of US sanctions imposed under Trump’s administration is “a legal and moral obligation”, not something to be used as leverage in negotiations.

“Didn’t work for Trump — won’t work for you,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.