Iran said it is ready for new indirect talks with the United States to overcome the last hurdles to revive its tattered 2015 nuclear deal with major powers amid a growing crisis over the country’s atomic program.
Tehran’s UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the Iranian “negotiating team is ready to engage constructively again to conclude and reach agreement”.
“The ball is in US’s court, and if the US acts realistically and shows its serious intention to implement its obligations, the agreement is not out of reach,” he said.
Ravanchi’s remarks came a day after indirect negotiations between Iran and the US ended in Qatar after failing to make significant progress. Yet Ravanchi described the Qatar talks as “serious and positive”.
He said Iran will contact the European Union coordinators “for the next stage of talks”.
During intensive consultations with EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Tehran last week “Iran once again emphasized its willingness to provide creative solutions to the remaining issues in the hope of ending the deadlock,” Ravanchi told the UN meeting on the resolution that endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal and its five permanent members – the US, Russia, China, United Kingdom and France – and Germany.
Before Ravanchi spoke, US deputy ambassador Richard Mills told the council that Washington “remains committed to a mutual return to full implementation” of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Mills said the US has been prepared for months to conclude a deal based on understandings negotiated in Vienna in March, “but we can only conclude a deal, and implement it, if Iran drops its additional demands that are outside the scope of the JCPOA.”
The Vienna talks have been on “pause” since March.
Meanwhile, the European Union ambassador to the UN said on Thursday that reviving the nuclear deal “might not make it over the finishing line”.