Iran has yet to formally respond to an offer of talks the US made last weekto resume negotiations aimed at returning the Islamic Republic to fullcompliance with its 2015 nuclear deal, the State Department said Monday.
The Biden administration is “not measuring” progress with the IslamicRepublic over its nuclear program “in minutes or hours,” Spokesman NedPrice told reporters, but is instead seeking to act “in lockstep” with itsEuropean allies and negotiating partners.
“If this does come to fruition, the talks with Iran in the P5+1 context, wewill of course be there with our European allies, and we will be there toundertake the hard diplomacy, the discussions that can lead us to thatpoint where Iran can resume full compliance and the United States can beprepared to do the same,” he said.
Momentum towards returning the US and Iran to full compliance with theJoint Comprehensive Plan of Action has been stalled since US President JoeBiden took office last month over disagreements between Washington andTehran as to who must take the first steps.
The nuclear agreement was signed in 2015 by Iran, and the US, China,Russia, France, the UK, and Germany — collectively known as the P5+1 — aswell as the EU.
Iran maintains that since former US President Donald Trump chose tounilaterally leave the deal in 2018, and re-imposed biting economicsanctions on the country, Biden must first act before it will move renegeon retaliatory steps it took in violation of the agreement’s nuclear curbs.
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The impasse has endured for over a month, and the US on Thursday reachedout to Iran through its European allies to sit down for talks under theP5+1’s auspices.
Iran’s Supreme Leader on Monday said his country “will not back down” onits right to pursue its nuclear program, and warned uranium enrichmentcould go up to 60%, maintaining if it is done it will be for civilian use.
Iran is further slated to stop adhering to the Additional Protocol to NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) on Feb. 23, which would limit the UN nuclearwatchdog’s access to its nuclear sites.
