Iran will resume negotiations aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by the end of November, its top nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday. The announcement comes as the United States (US) and other Western poqers continue to express concern over Iran’s lack of initiative to resume dialogue and several recent actions taken by Tehran to accelerate its nuclear programme.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri, “agreed to start negotiations in November.” Bagheri’s comments came during a meeting with the European Union’s chief negotiator, Enrique Mora, in Brussels.
Bagheri tweeted that he had a “very serious and constructive dialogue” with Mora on the “essential elements for successful negotiations,” adding that the exact date for resuming the talks “would be announced in the course of the next week.”
During the meeting, both envoys “reviewed the main obstacles to the forthcoming talks.” Bagheri stressed that any agreement “must meet Iran’s demands,” including the lifting of sanctions and the normalisation of trade between Iran and other countries. He further said, “Iran will not relinquish its demand for a guarantee that negligence and illegal behaviour on part of other sides will not happen again.”
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Wednesday that negotiations are “not far away” and noted that the date would be fixed once Bagheri returns to Iran. He also called on US President Joe Biden to “demonstrate his will” about returning to the deal. “We are not so eager for America’s return to the JCPOA for the sake of returning. The important issue is the result if it is to Iran’s benefit or not,” he noted.
In this regard, Abdollahian requested the US to unfreeze $10 billion in Iran’s funds owed to it by third countries. Such an action on the part of the US would “show that Americans are serious about lifting the sanctions,” he added.
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Meanwhile, the White House said it was aware of Bagheri’s announcement but was waiting for European officials to confirm the resumption of talks. “I would leave to the negotiators to determine when the next round of discussions will be,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.
Moreover, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington is “alarmed” by the recent steps Iran has taken to accelerate its nuclear programme. “So, our first and highest priority is to get back to the table and get back to a deal that does, in fact, place a lid on Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.
Additionally, Sullivan has warned that the “window is not unlimited” for Iran to resume talks, saying that if the US does not see progress, it “retain[s] all other options to be able to deal with this programme as necessary.”
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Tensions between Iran and the West have intensified recently, as Tehran has taken steps to increase its nuclear activity and reduce its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In August, the IAEA reported that Iran had taken steps to accelerate the enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels. The nuclear watchdog has also accused Iran of jeopardising its monitoring work and “stonewalling” investigations into Iran’s past nuclear activity.
There has also been no progress in resuming the nuclear negotiations in Vienna between Iran and world powers that began in April. Since the sixth round of talks ended on June 20, there have been no signs of when the next round will resume. While the US and other Western powers have urged Iran to return to the table, hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi has shown little interest in resuming dialogue.