TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has blamed Washington’s excessive demands for a standstill in the Vienna negotiations on the revival of the JCPOA, giving an assurance that Tehran will not allow its red lines to be crossed.
“If there is a pause in the course of the Vienna talks, it’s due to the American side’s excessive demands,” the top Iranian diplomat said in a post on his Twitter account.
He emphasized that Iran’s Foreign Ministry acts “with power and logic” in order to secure the highest interests of the Iranian nation while observing the country’s red lines.
Amir-Abdollahian said Iran and the P4+1 group of countries can reach a final agreement in Vienna “if the White House behaves realistically,” Press TV reported.
Earlier at a weekly press conference, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has criticized the U.S. for a halt in the Vienna negotiations on the revival of the 2015 Iran deal, saying American officials need to make a necessary political decision as soon as possible if they want to reach an agreement.
“All of us should not forget that what we are facing today is not an administration that wants to perform its duties, but rather, one that seeks to exploit legal means in order not to honor its obligations,” Khatibzadeh said.
Khatibzadeh further said the Vienna talks have come to a grinding halt because of such an American approach.
“The United States is trying to hold the remaining issues hostage to its internal affairs. We will not wait forever … The United States must make a political decision,” he said.
“The U.S. is responsible for the current pause in the talks and its possible protraction in the coming days. The solution is in the White House too. The U.S. must respond logically to Iran’s rational demands, which have been approved by the P4+1 group of countries, so that we can go back to Vienna,” the Iranian diplomat added.
Negotiations have been held in the Austrian capital since last April to restore the accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was ditched by former U.S. president Donald Trump in May 2018.