Iran’s top diplomat claims that a deal to resurrect his country’s nuclear pact with world powers is “within grasp,” but that it is contingent on Western goodwill.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Twitter on Thursday that talks in Vienna, Austria, were “progressing with seriousness” and that lifting sanctions was a “basic priority.”
“Good deal within reach if the West shows good will. We seek rational, sober and result-oriented dialogue,” said Amir-Abdollahian.
The discussions aimed at resurrecting the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several foreign countries – the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States – started on Monday after Iran suspended them in June following President Ebrahim Raisi’s election.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as it is officially known, aims to make it nearly hard for Iran to construct an atomic weapon while enabling it to pursue a civilian nuclear programme.
Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations.
Separately, Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator said on Thursday that Iran sent two proposals on sanctions relief and nuclear pledges to the European powers involved in the accord.
“We have delivered two proposed drafts to them … Of course they need to check the texts that we have provided to them. If they are ready to continue the talks, we are in Vienna to continue the talks,” Ali Bagheri Kani told reporters.
Draft documentation had been handed over, according to a European diplomat.
“We understand from an Iranian diplomatic source that one of these proposals will be about lifting the sanctions, and the other will be on Iran rolling back the measures it took after the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal,” he said.
“The elements of these proposals are going to be built upon what was agreed on in the past six rounds of talks between Iran and the world powers.
“However, new points were added, ones that were disregarded in the past talks and Iran believes they are crucial in order to reach an agreement.”
Meanwhile, Israel has called on world powers to immediately halt nuclear talks, citing a UN report that Tehran has begun generating enriched uranium with more modern centrifuges.
“Iran is carrying out nuclear blackmail as a negotiating tactic, and this should be answered by the immediate halt to negotiations and the implementation of tough steps by the world powers,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office quoted him as saying in a call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday.
Since then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement and reimposed punishing penalties, Tehran has repeatedly violated the pact’s nuclear limits.
Iran, on the other hand, which denies wanting a nuclear weapons, has been systematically abandoning its obligations since 2019.
