Iran says nuclear talks might not resume for 2-3 months

By AFP 1 September 2021, 5:27 pm

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Iran's Governor to the International Atomic Energy Agency Kazem Gharib Abadi, Political deputy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran Abbas Araghchi, and Deputy Secretary General and Political Director of the European External Action Service Enrique Mora stand in front of the Grand Hotel Vienna, where where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, on June 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner)

Stalled talks aimed at reviving Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers will likely not resume for another two to three months, according to Iran’s foreign ministry.

Steered by the European Union, the talks began in April and seek to bring the US back into a deal agreed in 2015. Former US president Donald Trump abandoned the accord in 2018 and began imposing tough sanctions on Iran.

Negotiations were adjourned on June 20, two days after ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election, and no date has been set for a resumption of dialogue.

“We are not seeking to flee the negotiation table and the… government considers a real negotiation is a negotiation that produces palpable results allowing the rights of the Iranian nation to be guaranteed,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says during an interview broadcast by state television.

The Vienna talks are “one of the questions on the foreign policy and government agenda,” he says.

But “the other party knows full well that a process of two to three months is required for the new government to establish itself and to start taking decisions.”