SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday Tehran “never” pins hope on ongoing talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the country’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.
“We put our hopes on the east, west, north, south of our country and never have any hope in Vienna and New York,” Raisi said in a televised speech commemorating the 43rd anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, according to Reuters.
Raisi, whose election last June led to a five-month hiatus in the talks, said Iran would rely on its domestic economic potential rather than expect support from overseas and from the nuclear talks with world powers.
Iran and the United States resumed indirect talks in the Austrian capital on Tuesday after a 10-day break, but envoys gave little away as to whether they were closer to resolving various thorny issues.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration publicly pressured Iran on Wednesday to revive the agreement quickly, saying that it will be impossible to return to the accord if a deal is not struck within weeks.
In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal – designed to stop Iran developing a nuclear weapon – and reimposed sanctions in a bid to force Tehran into talks on a broader agreement that would have also addressed its ballistic missile programme and support for proxies in the Middle East.
Iran responded by breaching many of the deal’s restrictions and pushing well beyond them, enriching uranium to close to nuclear bomb-grade and using advanced centrifuges to do it, which has helped it hone its skills in operating those machines.
