SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The United States on Tuesday expressed caution over upbeat comments by Iran and Russia about talks in Vienna to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Iran and Russia both gave upbeat views about talks that kicked this week to salvage the nuclear deal.
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said a deal was possible in the near future if other parties showed “good faith”.
Russian envoy Mikhail Ulyanov said a working group was making “indisputable progress” in the eighth round of talks.
Spokesman of the U.S. State Department Ned price said there was some progress in the last round of talks but it was too soon to tell whether Tehran returned to the table to build on those gains, Reuters reported.
“It’s really too soon to tell whether Iran has returned with a more constructive approach to this round,” Price said in a telephone press briefing.
“We are now assessing, in the course of these talks, whether the Iranians came back with an agenda of new issues or preliminary solutions to the ones already presented,” Price said.
The original agreement lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its atomic activities.
But former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the deal in 2018. Iran later breached many of the deal’s nuclear restrictions and kept pushing well beyond them.
Iran insists all U.S. sanctions must be lifted before steps are taken on the nuclear deal, while Western negotiators say nuclear and sanctions steps must be balanced in the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).
France, Germany and Britain said technical progress had been made in the last round and the parties now needed to fully focus on the key outstanding issues, particularly nuclear and sanctions.
“The negotiation is urgent – and our teams are here to work swiftly and in good faith towards getting a deal,” they said in a statement on Tuesday.
