DOHA —
Iran said it was “serious” about nuclear talks
with the US but that negotiations could end after just two days on Wednesday,
as they try to revive a landmark deal.
اضافة اعلان
The indirect negotiations in Qatar are an attempt to
reboot long-running EU-mediated talks on a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement
between Tehran and world powers.
Iran’s chief negotiator
Ali Bagheri is set to meet
the talks’ coordinator, EU deputy secretary-general Enrique Mora, on the
evening of day two in Qatar.
“The two-day talks are not over yet and this evening
another meeting will be held between” Bagheri and Mora, Iranian foreign
ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in Tehran.
“The talks in Doha, which are taking place in a
professional and serious atmosphere, were scheduled for two days from the
beginning,” Kanani said.
No time-limit had previously been announced on the
talks, which are taking place in a
Doha hotel with a US delegation headed by special
envoy Robert Malley.
An EU source told AFP that the discussions, which
come two weeks before US President Joe Biden makes his first official visit to
the region, were supposed to last several days.
The parties have “exchanged views and proposals on
the remaining issues”, Kanani said.
The
US State Department meanwhile said that the
indirect consultations were ongoing Wednesday in Doha, but said it had nothing
immediately to say about the talks.
A State Department spokesperson said the US was
prepared to return to the deal, but reiterated calls for Tehran “to drop their
additional demands that go beyond” the scope of the pact.
Differences between
Tehran and Washington have
notably included Iran’s demand that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be
removed from a US terror list.
‘Trump method’
The arch-rivals are meeting
indirectly — passing messages from different areas of the same hotel — to try
to break an impasse in attempts to restart the 2015 agreement.
The deal, which lifted sanctions in return for Iran
curbing its nuclear program, was abandoned unilaterally by former US president
Donald Trump in 2018.
The international talks on reviving the deal had
been taking place since April 2021 in
Vienna, before the process stalled last
March.
Iranian officials earlier said they were hoping for
progress in Qatar — but warned the Americans to abandon the “Trump method” of
negotiating.
“We hope that, God willing, we can reach a positive
and acceptable agreement if the United States abandons the Trump method,”
Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi said.
He described the “Trump method” as “non-compliance
with international law and past agreements and disregard for the legal rights
of the Iranian people”.
Foreign Minister
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also said
Iran was open to a deal in Doha, but that it wouldn’t cross its “red lines”.
“We are serious” in our desire to finalize an
agreement, he said, stressing that his country would not retreat from the “red
lines” it has drawn.
“If the American side has serious intentions and is
realistic, an agreement is available at this stage and in this round of
negotiations,” he said, quoted by IRNA state news agency.
IRNA has previously described the “red lines” as
lifting all sanctions as related to the nuclear agreement, creating a mechanism
to verify they have been lifted, and making sure the US does not withdraw from
the deal.
The deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018,
when Trump unilaterally withdrew and began reimposing harsh economic sanctions
on America’s arch-enemy.
Soaring oil prices and the lack of spare capacity
make this an opportunity for Tehran to push for the lifting of sanctions on
Iranian crude, said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran program at the
Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank.
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