Iran to develop policy before resuming stalled nuclear talks

In response to calls for it to resume its stalled nuclear talks, Iran has said that it will develop its policy first, a senior official said on Tuesday.

“We are not seeking to flee from the negotiation table,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Iranian TV News. “The government considers a real negotiation to be a negotiation that produces tangible results allowing the rights of the Iranian nation to be guaranteed.”

Referring to the talks brokered by the EU and held in Vienna, the minister said that they are “one of the questions on the foreign policy and government agenda, but the other party knows full well that a process of two to three months is required for the new government to establish itself and to start taking decisions.”

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AFP reported that the talks to reinstate Iran’s nuclear deal with the world powers will not be resumed within the next two to three months.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, however, told Amirabdollahian in a telephone call on Wednesday that it is urgent for Tehran to return to the talks, reported Reuters. “The minister underlined the importance and the urgency of an immediate resumption of negotiations,” the French Foreign Ministry said after the conversation between the two officials.

Talks on the return to the nuclear deal, which former US President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018, were adjourned on 20 June, two days after Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election. No date was set for them to resume.