SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran is keen to reach a swift agreement with world powers in nuclear talks in Vienna within the framework of its interests, the Iranian foreign minister said on Monday.
“Tehran is in a hurry to reach agreement in Vienna, but this should be within the framework of our national interest,” Hossein Amirabdollahian told a news conference, according to Reuters.
He also urged Western powers to stop “playing with time”.
The indirect talks in Austria between Iran and the United States resumed last week after a 10-day break. Delegates have said the talks have made limited progress since they resumed in November after a five-month hiatus prompted by the election of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Earlier, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the talks were “complicated and difficult” as the had reached key issued that need serious decisions especially by Washington.
But “there is no impasse in Vienna”, he added.
The agreement imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities that extended the time Tehran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, if it chose to, to at least a year from around two to three months. Most experts say that time is now shorter than when the deal was struck.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
Then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018, re-imposing punishing U.S. sanctions on Iran’s economy that slashed its vital oil exports.
Iran responded by breaching many of the deal’s restrictions and pushing well beyond them, enriching uranium to close to weapons-grade and using advanced centrifuges to do it, which has helped it hone its skills in operating those machines.
“If the U.S. and European parties show real determination”, an agreement can be reached very soon in Vienna, Khatibzadeh said on Monday, AFP reported.
“We need objective guarantees to make sure the US does not leave the agreement once again and that it honors its commitments,” he added.
