Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the adoption of a realistic approach by all negotiating parties is a necessary condition for the success of protracted talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“If this round of negotiations are carried out with realism on the part of the United States and the three European countries—Britain, France and Germany—we are ready for an outcome agreed by all sides and the return of all parties to their commitments under the deal that was signed in 2015,” he said on Wednesday, ISNA reported.
The JCPOA offered sanctions relief to Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear activity, but the US pulled out illegally four years ago and reimposed tough sanctions that prompted Tehran to scale down its commitments.
Talks began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital Vienna to work out how both countries can resume compliance.
The majority of issues were agreed upon through 11 months of discussion, but the negotiations reached a stalemate in March over a few remaining issues.
The European Union coordinator of deal, Josep Borrell, could eventually break the impasse after separate meetings with American and Iranian authorities which resulted in an agreement to resume the talks in a trilateral format in Doha, Qatar.
Logic and Reason
Along this line, Iran’s top negotiator Ali Baqeri Kani traveled to Doha and held his first meeting with the EU intermediary Enrique Mora on Tuesday after consultations with a number of Qatari diplomats.
The original talks, however, are not moving from Vienna, according to EU spokesman Peter Stano.
“What is going on in Qatar right now are indirect talks between Iran and the US facilitated by the EU… But the discussions on the JCPOA among participants … are still scheduled for Vienna,” he told a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday, KUNA reported.
The outcome of the proximity talks in Doha will determine if it is possible for the participants to gather very quickly for the continuation of talks in Vienna, he added.
Amir-Abdollahian said Iran is attending the talks with a specified agenda and will negotiate the contents of a deal with full logic and reason.
“We are serious and will not cross the red lines which have been determined based on the policy of securing the country’s national interests to the maximum possible level,” he said.
The US administration, however, claims it is serious about reaching an agreement, but has acted in contradiction so far, the top diplomat noted.
“We have not witnessed any practical measure by the US except behavior based on the Trump-era maximum pressure,” he said, referring to US ex-president Donald Trump who ordered the exit from JCPOA and launched the pressure campaign against Tehran.
In this round of talks, he added, it remains to be seen how real Washington’s claim is when it comes to practical steps.
An agreement is within reach in this round of negotiations if the US has serious will and acts realistically, according to Amir-Abdollahian, but unconstructive statements from western-related groups indicate that they have not adopted the course of realism yet.
