Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that “there should be no rush in Vienna talks”, as the fifth round of multilateral negotiations kicked off to find a compromise between the United States and Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA.
In his weekly press briefing on Monday, foreign ministry’s spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that “We are pursuing these talks with the necessary focus and attention to detail.” He added that the talks are not at an impasse and “considerable progress” has been made by the three working groups. “Negotiations have reached a key stage,” he added, but said that important issues remain to be resolved.
Following a decision by the Biden Administration to begin talks with Iran to pave the way for a revival of the JCPOA, negotiations began on April 6, with European powers acting as conduit between Washington and Tehran.
The two main issues are Iran’s return to the limits set by the agreement in terms of its nuclear activities and for Washington to lift sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after it left the JCPOA in May 2018.
It is not clear if the sides will reach an agreement before Iran’s presidential election on June 18, or the talks will go on until a new president takes office in Tehran.
Khatibzadeh also spoke about talks with Saudi Arabia that began in Iraq in April to reduce tensions between the two regional rivals. These talks are continuing in an “appropriate atmosphere”, he said.
Source » iranintl