Foreign Ministry: Ball in U.S. Court

Date: 27 June 2022 - 21:45

News ID: ۱۰۴۱۸۳

TEHRAN -- Iran said Monday that its indirect talks with the United States would resume this week in a Persian Gulf country, as part of wider efforts to remove sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The negotiations will be separate from broader talks in Vienna between Iran and major powers that are mediated by the EU, the bloc’s top diplomat Joseph Borrell said Saturday in Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the talks would focus on the lifting of sanctions imposed by Washington on Tehran and be held “in a Persian Gulf country in the coming days, later this week”.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry source, reported separately that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Baqeri would visit Qatar on Tuesday for “negotiations on lifting sanctions”, and that the U.S.-Iranian indirect talks would be held there.

The landmark nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018, when then U.S. president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it and began imposing harsh economic sanctions on Iran.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to return to the agreement, saying it would be the best path ahead with the Islamic Republic, but he has shown a propensity to maintain the key elements of sanctions in place.

“What we will do in the coming days does not concern the nuclear dimension but existing differences and the lifting of sanctions,” Khatibzadeh said.

“I hope that we will see positive results emerge from these talks,” he told reporters. “If Washington comes with answers, then we can do the work quickly ... The ball is in Washington’s court.”

Talks began in Vienna in April last year but hit a snag in March this year amid differences between Tehran and Washington, notably over the U.S. refusal to undo its past wrongs.

During the Vienna talks Iran also repeatedly called for U.S. guarantees that there will be no repeat of Trump’s pullout.

Following talks in Tehran on Saturday, Borrell said that negotiations to revive the nuclear deal would resume within days.

Saudi Arabia Ready for

Direct Talks

Khatibzadeh also said Saudi Arabia is ready to hold more direct bilateral talks, one day after the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi travelled to Tehran.

Riyadh is ready to “continue negotiations in Baghdad on a diplomatic level” without commenting on a possible date, he said.

Direct talks hosted by Baghdad between Iran and Saudi Arabia began in April 2021, and the fifth and latest round, which the Iranian side described as “positive”, was held in April 2022.

So far, according to Khatibzadeh, the two sides have mostly only reached final agreements on the accommodation of Iranian pilgrims going to Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage in July.

“There are still cases of disagreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but they would need to be resolved between the two countries, something that will help the whole of the Islamic world,” he said.

This comes after al-Kadhimi was received by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran Sunday following a trip to Jeddah a day earlier, where he met Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.

For his part, Amir-Abdollahian said Iran “supports the reopening of embassies in the capitals of both countries”.

Diplomatic ties were severed in 2016 after protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in reaction to the execution of a renowned Shia religious leader by Saudi Arabia.