Remaining Issues over Restoring Nuke Deal Slow Down Negotiations: Iranian Media

TEHRAN:
The remaining issues over restoring a nuclear deal have slowed negotiations between Iran and the United States, said Nour News, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Wednesday.

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States resumed on Tuesday in the Qatari capital Doha to resolve the remaining differences between Tehran and Washington to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In a brief report on Tuesday, Nour News said that discussions on the remaining issues were followed by a “technical and serious approach” between Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and Enrique Mora, the EU chief coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks.

Iran has previously stated that no direct talks would be held with the United States, and Mora would pass messages to the two sides, according to the report.

Iran signed the nuclear deal in July 2015 and agreed to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of U.S.-led sanctions. But former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

The talks on restoring the deal began in April 2021 between Iran and major signatory parties in the Austrian capital of Vienna, with the indirect participation of the United States.

However, the talks have been suspended since March due to differences between Tehran and Washington, notably over Iran’s demand that its Islamic Revolution Guards Corps be removed from a U.S. terror list.