Tehran, April 4 (AFP/APP):Iran will only return to Vienna to finalisean agreement to revive its landmark 2015 nuclear deal with worldpowers, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Monday. “We will not be going to Vienna for new negotiationsbut to finalise the nuclear agreement,” Khatibzadeh told reporters inTehran. However, Iran said there were still outstandingissues that it was waiting on Washington to settle. “At the moment, we do not yet have a definitiveanswer from Washington,” Khatibzadeh said. “If Washington answers the outstanding questions, wecan go to Vienna as soon as possible.” Tehran has been engaged in negotiations to revivethe deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA), with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly, andthe United States indirectly. Iranian and US delegations in Vienna do notcommunicate directly, but messages are passed through otherparticipants and the European Union, the talks’ coordinator. Nearly a year of negotiations have brought theparties close to renewing the 2015 accord. But the talks were halted last month, after Russiademanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following itsinvasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later saidMoscow had received the necessary guarantees from Washington on tradewith Iran. Among the key sticking points is Tehran’s demand toremove from the US terror list the Revolutionary Guards, theideological arm of Iran’s military. Washington recently confirmed that sanctions on theGuards would stay. “Today, in the final phase, the United States seeksto deprive Iran of the economic benefits of the agreement,”Khatibzadeh said. The JCPOA gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange forcurbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that Tehran could notdevelop or acquire a nuclear weapon — something it has always deniedwanting to do. But the US unilateral withdrawal from the accord in2018 under then-president Donald Trump and the reimposition of bitingeconomic sanctions prompted Iran to begin rolling back its owncommitments. The Vienna talks aim to return the US to the nucleardeal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and toensure Tehran’s full compliance with its commitments.
Iran sets condition for revival of nuclear deal with US
