TEHRAN — Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian said Sunday an agreement is "close" in paused
negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
اضافة اعلان
Iran has been engaged in negotiations to
revive the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA), with France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China directly, and the US
indirectly.
"We are close to an agreement in the
negotiations," Amir-Abdollahian said during a phone conversation with UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to a statement by the ministry.
Iranian and US delegations in Vienna do not
communicate directly, but messages are passed through other participants and
the EU, Which is coordinating the talks.
"We have passed on our proposals on the
remaining issues to the American side through the EU senior negotiator, and now
the ball is in the US court," Iran's top diplomat added.
According to the Iranian statement, Guterres
stressed the importance of the Vienna talks and expressed hope that the parties
would reach an agreement as soon as possible.
Nearly a year of negotiations brought the
parties close to renewing the landmark 2015 accord.
But the talks were halted last month, after
Russia demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following its
invasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later
said Moscow had received the necessary guarantees from Washington on trade with
Iran.
The JCPOA gave Iran sanctions relief in
exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not
develop a nuclear weapon — something it has always denied wanting to do.
But the US unilateral withdrawal from the
accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and the reimposition of biting
economic sanctions prompted Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments.
The Vienna talks aim to return the US to the
nuclear deal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure
Tehran's full compliance with its commitments.
Among the key sticking points is Tehran's
demand to remove from the US terror list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the
ideological arm of Iran's military.
Washington recently confirmed sanctions on
the IRGC would stay in place.
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