TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s president said on Monday that the United States must lift sanctions on his country to prove it is serious about resuming nuclear talks stalled in Vienna.
In an interview with State TV, Ibrahim Raisi said Iran is after “goal-oriented” talks with the West and added that Iran “never left the negotiating table”.
“The lifting of the ban is a sign of the seriousness of the other side,” he said.
Talks between Iran and European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal with Russia and China have been stalled since June. Raisi’s administration, which took office in August, has not set a date for the resumption of talks. Iran has been resisting calls for an early resumption of talks in Vienna. Instead, Iran wants to meet separately with other parties to the deal in Brussels before returning to the table in Vienna.
As Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog in Washington on Monday, the State Department said the Biden administration did not believe a preliminary meeting in Brussels was needed. Blinken and others warn that the window for diplomacy is closing.
“To be clear, we don’t think this is necessary,” department spokesman Ned Price told reporters when asked about a meeting in Brussels. “We are very clear that the destination we are looking for is Vienna is not an intermediate step in Brussels.”
Raisi, however, said that Iran is “serious in this matter, we should also see seriousness on the other side”.
In the 2015 nuclear deal, Tehran substantially limited its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement, raising tensions in the wider Middle East.
Now Iran has violated the limits of its uranium enrichment set by the agreement, due to the stalled talks in Vienna. It is now enriching small amounts of uranium at its nearest level to weapons-grade purity and its stockpile continues to grow.
