Nuclear, Iran opens to the resumption of negotiations in Vienna. Biden to the UN: “US G will return to stop Iranian nuclear weapons”
While US President Joe Biden is engaged in his first speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Iran returns to talk about the 2015 nuclear deal, announcing the possible resumption of negotiations in Vienna. This was reported by Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Negotiations were suspended in June, during the election period in Iran, which elected Ebrahim Raisi to lead the country.
From the top seat of the United Nations house, Biden also intervened on the issue, specifying once more the position of the United States: «The United States is committed to preventing Iran in order to obtain the nuclear weapon. We are ready to return to the 2015 nuclear deal if Iran does the same ».
Before the talks stalled, the European powers, China and Russia – signatories to the 2015 agreement – had negotiated indirect talks between the United States and Iran.
“Each meeting requires prior coordination and the preparation of an agenda,” explained the spokesman, quoted by the agency. So far, six rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahanian will have bilateral meetings with counterparts from member countries of the nuclear agreement on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly underway in New York, Khatibzadeh added, specifying however that there will not be a meeting there the entire Joint Commission presiding over the negotiations.
The agreement was signed in 2015 by Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States plus Germany) and the European Union. According to Iran, Iran had agreed to eliminate its medium-enriched uranium reserves and cut low-enriched uranium reserves by 98%. In 2018, the advent of the Trump administration in the White House sanctioned a halt, as the former American president announced the withdrawal of the United States from the agreement and unilaterally impose sanctions on Tehran. Since before his inauguration, President Biden had declared his intention to re-enter the agreement, but it is precisely the crux of the sanctions that seems to slow down an effective resumption of negotiations, given that so far a shy diplomatic relationship has manifested only through indirect meetings, or without the presence of official delegations from the two countries.