Abdollahian: Vienna negotiations will continue to reach strong and permanent deal
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian affirmed that the Vienna negotiations on the nuclear deal have not stopped and they will continue at another pace through the exchange of written messages with the Americans through the European Union representative to lift the unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran.
Abdollahian’ remarks came during an interview with Almasirah network correspondent in Tehran.
He underlined that Iran’s objective in the negotiations is to reach a “strong” and “permanent” agreement.
“We urged the American side to be realistic,” he said. “Removing sanctions in all areas and receiving economic guarantees are among the most important items on our negotiating team’s agenda.”
The chief Iranian diplomat also said he believes the Americans have perfectly understood Iran’s red lines.
He added, “We will continue the dialogue. As soon as an agreement is about to be reached, our representative in the negotiations will make the final changes to the agreement.”
Several rounds of negotiations have been held in the Austrian capital since April 2021 to bring the US back into the Iran deal. The Vienna talks, however, exclude American diplomats due to their country’s withdrawal from the deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on May 8, 2018.
Recent weeks have brought the talks to a new impasse, as the US insists on its refusal to remove Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its foreign terrorist organization list.
The Islamic Republic has made clear that both the JCPOA and the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 are the benchmarks for the Vienna talks, rejecting anything less or more than those two.
Basma Qaddour