Iran says top EU diplomat due in Tehran to discuss nuke talks
The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced Friday that European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will arrive in Tehran on Friday night for talks on the latest status of the international nuclear talks, according to the official news agency IRNA.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, the ministry's spokesman, said that "Borrell will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and some other top officials of the Islamic Republic to discuss bilateral relations, a number of regional and international issues and also the latest situation of the nuclear negotiations to remove the sanctions."
In an address to a joint press conference with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, Amir-Abdollahian expressed hope for the nuclear talks in Vienna to resume "in the near future" to rescue the Iranian nuclear pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"We continue on the path of diplomacy, which is the right path, and once again we invite America to reality," he said.
Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in Vienna between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the agreement.
Iran signed the JCPOA with the world powers in July 2015 accepting to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on Tehran. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed Washington's unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the agreement in retaliation.
In the Vienna talks, Iran insists on obtaining guarantees that the succeeding U.S. governments would not drop the deal again and called for lifting the sanctions in a verifiable manner.
The talks have been suspended since March when it was believed to be only a step away from a final agreement, raising deep concerns about their prospect.
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