Iran said nuclear talks that are set to resume on Monday in Vienna should focus on lifting sanctions on the Islamic republic and “guarantees” that the U.S. will return to the fold.
Negotiations to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed in late November, after a five-month hiatus following the election of ultraconservative Iran President Ebrahim Raisi. The talks seek to bring back the United States, after it withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then President Donald Trump and began imposing sanctions on Iran.
Iran has reported progress in the talks, but European diplomats have warned they are “rapidly reaching the end of the road”. U.S. negotiator Rob Malley has said there are only “weeks” left to revive the deal, if the Islamic republic continues its current pace of nuclear activities.
Ahead of the resumption, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the agenda on Monday should be “the issue of guarantees and verification” on the lifting of U.S. sanctions if it returns to the accord.
“The most important thing for us is to reach a point where we can verify that Iranian oil will be sold easily and without any limits, that the money for this oil will be transferred in foreign currency to Iranian bank accounts, and that we will be able to benefit from all the revenues,” he said, quoted on Monday by state news agency IRNA.
