EU's Borrell Says US-Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume in Coming Days

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union will facilitate the resumption of talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the coming days, as per an agreement reached between EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Saturday.

"In meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian @Amirabdolahian we agreed on resumption of negotiations between Iran and US in the coming days, facilitated by my team, to solve the last outstanding issues," Borrell said on social media.

Borrell flew to Tehran on Friday night. He said the main purpose of his visit was to "give new momentum to the negotiations and bring the nuclear deal #JCPOA back on track."

During a press conference following the meeting, the Iranian foreign minister confirmed that Tehran was ready to resume the JCPOA talks with the US.

"We had positive and comprehensive talks with the head of EU diplomacy. We discussed Iran's demands in detail and stressed to Borrell that we are ready to resume talks in the coming days," Amirabdollahian was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Tasnim.

Iran takes interest in the economic benefits from the original 2015 agreement and will not accept any infringement on its economic interests, the foreign minister said but added that "we will try to resolve all issues and differences during the talks, which will be resumed."

Meanwhile, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said on Saturday that Washington still believes that the nuclear deal with Iran can be revived.

"We still believe in getting back into the JCPOA. I can't speak to the status of where the negotiations are right now but nothing has changed about our position that a nuclear deal is the best way to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons status," Kirby told a press gaggle on the way to the G7 summit in Germany.

In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal, known officially as the JCPOA, with the P5+1 group, which includes the US, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany, as well as the European Union. It required Tehran to scale back its nuclear program and reduce its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief.

In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran, to which the latter responded with a gradual abandoning of its own commitments under the deal. The new US administration led by President Joe Biden signaled its readiness to renegotiate the deal, and the two countries launched EU-facilitated talks in Vienna in April 2021.

Following seven rounds of talks, Borrell announced a "pause" in the ongoing eighth round, citing "external factors."