Tehran says nuclear talks might not resume for 2-3 months

Stalled talks aimed at reviving Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers will likely not resume for another two to three months, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Steered by the EU, the talks began in April and seek to bring the US back into a deal agreed in 2015. Former US President Donald Trump abandoned the accord in 2018 and began imposing tough sanctions on Iran.

Talks were adjourned on June 20, two days after ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election, and no date has been set for a resumption of dialogue.

“We are not seeking to flee the negotiation table and the ... government considers a real negotiation is a negotiation that produces palpable results allowing the rights

of the Iranian nation to be guaranteed,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during an interview broadcast on Tuesday evening by state television.

The Vienna talks are “one of the questions on the foreign policy and government agenda,” he said.

But “the other party knows full well that a process of two to three months is required for the new government to establish itself and to start taking decisions.”

The 2015 deal offered Iran an easing of Western and UN sanctions in return for tight controls on its nuclear program, monitored by the UN. In retaliation for Trump’s withdrawal three years ago and his subsequent imposition of swingeing sanctions, Iran in effect abandoned most of its commitments under the deal.

But Trump’s successor President Joe Biden wants to bring the US back into the agreement. The talks in Vienna involve Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.