The United States and Iran announced on Monday June 27 to resume their indirect negotiations in Qatar this week, after several months of deadlock in talks on the Iranian nuclear issue.
A resumption of dialogue. Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry source, reported that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri, will visit Qatar on Tuesday for “sanctions lifting negotiations”. In Washington, a State Department spokesman confirmed that the talks would be held this week in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh said the talks will take place “in the coming days, this week.” According to him, they “will not concern the nuclear dimension, but differences on the question of the lifting of sanctions” American, which hit hard the country, affected by galloping inflation.
During a surprise visit to Tehran on Saturday, Josep Borrell made a similar announcement, saying that these talks would be separate from those conducted by the EU in Vienna between Iran and the major powers.
Said Khatibzadeh expressed hope for “positive results” from the talks. “If Washington comes up with answers, then we can get the job done quickly… The ball is in Washington’s court,” he said.
In 2018, former US President Donald Trump’s United States withdrew from the nuclear deal and imposed tough economic sanctions on Tehran. As a result, Iran has gradually withdrawn from the agreement and is accused of seeking to acquire the atomic bomb, which the country denies.
After Joe Biden’s election, Washington has said it wants to get back into the deal, despite growing pessimism in recent weeks.
Iran wants sanctions lifted
“We are grateful to our partners in the EU, who continue to send messages and work to move these negotiations forward,” said a spokesman for American diplomacy. “We are ready to conclude and immediately implement the agreement we negotiated in Vienna for a mutual return to the full implementation of the JCPOA” (name given to the agreement). “But for that, Iran must decide to drop its additional demands that go beyond the JCPOA,” he said.
Qatar, which has better relations with Tehran than most of the Arab monarchies in the Gulf, wants to play a role as a diplomatic hub, with Doha having already helped organize talks between the United States and the Taliban.
Talks to revive the nuclear deal began in Vienna in April 2021, but broke down in March this year due to differences between Americans and Iranians, which include demanding guarantees that Washington will not withdraw from the OK.
Iran had also demanded that the regime’s ideological army, the Revolutionary Guards, no longer be considered a terrorist organization by Washington, which replied that this request was outside the scope of the nuclear talks.
In mid-June, the Biden administration declared that having been affiliated with this unit would not be a reason for refusing entry to the United States for Iranians who had no choice but to serve there.
