TEHRAN -- Iran’s foreign ministry said talks in the Qatari capital to remove U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic were proceeding in a “serious” atmosphere, denying an earlier report that they had ended.
The talks are aimed at overcoming differences over how to salvage a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in order to have the sanctions lifted.
Earlier, Iran’s Tasnim news agency had reported that the negotiations in Doha had ended without result.
“The two-day talks are not over yet and later today Iran’s top nuclear negotiator and the EU’s envoy Enrique Mora will meet again,” ministry spokesman Naser Kanani said. “Talks continue in a serious and business-like atmosphere.”
The talks started on Tuesday with Mora as the coordinator, shuttling between Iran’s Ali Bagheri Kani and Washington’s special Iran envoy Rob Malley. They are trying to break a months-long impasse that has stalled negotiations in Vienna to remove the sanctions.
“What prevented these negotiations from coming to fruition is the U.S. insistence on its proposed draft text in Vienna that excludes any guarantee for Iran’s economic benefits,” Tasnim said, citing informed sources at the talks.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the pact in 2018
and reimposed draconian sanctions on Iran’s economy. A year later, Tehran reacted by gradually reducing its compliance.
Iran’s nuclear chief on Tuesday confirmed that Tehran had begun installing a new cascade of advanced centrifuges at its underground Fordo facility.
The International Atomic Energy Agency earlier reported that Iran was planning to enrich uranium through a new chain of 166 advanced IR-6 centrifuges at the site.
“We will follow measures according to the plans made,” declared Muhammad Eslami.
Earlier this month, Iran removed surveillance cameras of the IAEA which it had allowed in a goodwill gesture outside the nuclear deal after the agency’s board of governors adopted a U.S.-sponsored resolution against the Islamic Republic.
The resolution came after IAEA chief Rafael Grossi paid a controversial visit to Occupied Palestine which is widely known for its subversive attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and terrorist assassination of the country’s scientists.
Over 11 months of talks between Tehran and major powers stalled in March, chiefly over Washington’s refusal to undo all its past wrongs.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it “welcomed” hosting the talks. It said the talks aimed to reestablish the deal “in a way that supports and enhances security, stability and peace in the region and opens new horizons for broader regional cooperation and dialogue with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”