Negotiations aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal have been paused because of Washington’s position, an Iranian official has said. The talks in Vienna directly involve Iran, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China; while the US is indirectly involved.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said that “America is responsible for the halt of these talks,” though he noted that a “deal is very much within reach.”
He urged Washington to “make a political decision for the deal’s revival,” and warned that Tehran would not “wait forever.”
Last Thursday, the US State Department revealed that a few outstanding issues remain in the negotiations, adding that it was up to Iran to resolve these matters.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday that Tehran had passed on its “proposals on the remaining issues to the American side through the EU senior negotiator,” adding that “now the ball is in US court.” In the phone conversation with Guterres, cited later by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Tehran’s top diplomat also claimed that the countries were “close to an agreement in the negotiations.”