Iran will not retreat from its “red lines” in its indirect talks with the US aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Tehran’s top diplomat said on Thursday.
The US and Iran have engaged for over a year in indirect talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the nuclear accord, which former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018.
The talks have come to a stand still since last month, reportedly over an Iranian demand to have the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) removed from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.
The US had designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization under Trump in 2019.
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“The exchange of messages between us and the Americans is taking place through the European Union… we have repeatedly emphasized that Iran does not pay attention to [the US’] excessive demands and is not willing to retreat from its red lines,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying in a phone call with his Syrian counterpart.
“The path of diplomacy is working well, and we are not far from reaching a good and lasting agreement,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
Trump withdrew Washington from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran, saying the deal failed to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and regional activities and it did not block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, responded by expanding its nuclear program, breaching most of the deal’s restrictions.
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