TEHRAN: Iran will resume on Oct. 21 the nuclear negotiations with world powers that were suspended in June, an Iranian lawmaker said Sunday after a meeting with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
The minister said that “talks with the 4+1 Group will restart on Thursday in Brussels,” Ahmad Alirezabeigui told the ultra-conservative news agency Fars after a closed-door session with Amir-Abdollahian.
The lawmaker was referring to four of the United Nations Security Council permanent members – Britain, China, France and Russia – along with Germany. Iran and these five nations opened talks in Vienna in April with the European Union also attending while the United States has taken part in indirect negotiations.
The U.S., China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain struck an accord in Vienna with Iran on its nuclear program in 2015. But then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled America out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions. Since then, Tehran – which insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only – has also retreated from many of its commitments under the accord. Trump’s successor Joe Biden has said he is ready to return to the agreement if the Islamic republic returns to its nuclear commitments. The Vienna talks aimed at reviving the deal were suspended in June, when Iran elected ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi as president.
The EU’s diplomatic chief Josep Borrell said Friday he was “ready” to meet Iranian leaders in Brussels as part of efforts to revive the faltering deal. Another Iranian lawmaker, Behrouz Mohebbi Najmabadi, said on Twitter on Sunday that negotiations would resume “this week.”
Last week a senior EU official had claimed Iran was not ready to return to talks with world powers over its nuclear programme yet and its new negotiating team wants to first meet with the EU in Brussels.
EU political director Enrique Mora, the chief coordinator for the talks, was in Tehran on Thursday to meet members of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, four months after discussions broke off between Iran and world powers. –Agencies
