TEHRAN -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said on Friday the West’s “haste” to reach a deal “cannot prevent the observance of Iran’s red lines,” including economic guarantees.
Western sources claim negotiations on reviving a 2015 Iran nuclear accord appear near a climax, amid talk of an imminent ministerial meeting. Such a meeting, said Amir-Abdollahian, “requires full compliance with the red lines.”
Jalina Porter, a U.S. State Department spokesperson, said a possible deal was close, but cautioned that unsolved issues remained.
“Our delegation will continue to work hard to reach a final and good agreement,” Amir-Abdollahian told the EU’s top diplomat Joseph Borrell by telephone.
“We are ready to finalize a good and immediate agreement,” he said, adding: “Most of Iran’s requests have been considered in the upcoming agreement.”
“However, the Western side’s rush and haste cannot prevent Iran’s red lines from being observed,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi is to travel to Tehran on Saturday.
Former president Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018, reimposing tough economic sanctions on Tehran.
The Vienna talks began last April between Iran and the five remaining parties to the JCPOA — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — on the assumption that the U.S., under the Joe Biden administration, is willing to return to compliance by removing the sanctions.
In spite of his fierce criticisms of the failed “maximum pressure” campaign pursued by his predecessor against Iran, Biden has not only kept the sanctions imposed under Trump intact but he has also added new ones.
On Thursday, Biden extended a national emergency against Iran for another year, in yet another act of bad faith.
In a statement, Biden said the national emergency declared by former president Bill Clinton on March 15, 1995, must continue in effect beyond March 15, 2022.
The actions and policies of the government of Iran continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, the statement claimed.
“Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to Iran declared in Executive Order 12957,” it added.
On Monday, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price threatened that Washington was ready to “walk away” if Iran displayed what he called “intransigence to making progress”.
Iran has maintained that if the Vienna talks fail, the U.S. and its three major European allies will be to blame.
Iran’s top security official said Thursday if the negotiations break down, the U.S. will suffer yet another defeat after the failure of its so-called maximum pressure policy against the Islamic Republic.
In a post on his official Twitter account, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said the Iranian nation’s strategy of “active resistance” defeated the maximum pressure policy, as acknowledged by the current U.S. administration.
“If #ViennaTalks do not lead to a good deal, current US administration will feel defeated in near future due to lack of timely use of diplomatic opportunities,” Shamkhani said.
Tehran says it won’t settle for anything less than the removal of all U.S. sanctions in a verifiable manner. It also wants guarantees that Washington will not abandon the agreement again.
In Vienna, the top Iranian negotiator met with EU deputy foreign policy chief Enrique Mora on Thursday and discussed the main thorny issues, including the scope of sanctions and the removal of the entire bans imposed against Iran.
Among other issues were guarantees demanded by the Islamic Republic so that it can verify the removal of sanctions, and also outstanding safeguard issues between Iran and the IAEA.
In a tweet after the end of his talks with Iran’s negotiator, Mora said, “We are at the final stages of the #ViennaTalks on #JCPOA.”

However, he said the talks had not reached their conclusion yet as “some relevant issues are still open and success is never guaranteed in such a complex negotiation”.
Mora said all the negotiating parties are doing their best, but they were still distant from a final agreement.
UK’s negotiator in the Vienna talks took to her Twitter account with a Persian tweet, saying, “We are very close to an agreement.”
Stephanie Al-Qaq said only a few final steps remained to be taken before an agreement is reached.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh however cautioned against any premature judgment on a deal.
“Premature good news does not substitute good agreement,” he tweeted later on Thursday.
“Nobody can say the deal is done, until all the outstanding remaining issues are resolved. Extra efforts needed,” he said, adding that all parties in the Vienna talks are “now focused on the final critical steps.”
The IAEA issued a report on Iran’s nuclear activities Thursday, saying that the country’s stock of enriched uranium had swollen in the past quarter.
Iran’s stock of uranium hexafluoride, the feedstock for centrifuges, includes 33.2 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, an increase of 15.5 kg, it said. The total stock of enriched uranium now stands at 3.2 tonnes, an increase of 707.4 kg on the quarter, the report added.
Iran’s acting ambassador to the IAEA, Muhammad Reza Ghaebi, said the report was just a routine update on the latest developments as well as new technical information with respect to Iran’s nuclear activities.