On Wednesday, the United States expressed its “disappointment” at the lack of “any progress” in the indirect negotiations that took place between it and the United States. Iran Since Tuesday in the Qatari capital, with the aim of reviving the agreement concluded in 2015 in Vienna on the Iranian nuclear program.
“The indirect talks in Doha have ended” and “we are disappointed that Iran has, once again, refused to respond positively to the EU initiative, and therefore no progress has been made,” a US State Department spokesperson said.
He added that the talks failed because “Iran has raised points unrelated to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the official name of the 2015 agreement) and does not seem ready to make the substantive decision on whether it wants to revive the agreement or bury it.”
The US spokesman’s statement came shortly after Enrique Mora, the European Union coordinator in the negotiations with Iran, announced that the Doha talks did not result in the “progress” that the Union hopes.
“Two intense days of indirect talks in Doha,” Mora wrote in a tweet on Twitter, accompanied by a photo of him during a meeting with the chief negotiator of the Islamic Republic, Ali Bagheri.
“Unfortunately, it has not yet led to the progress that the EU team had hoped for. We will continue to work with greater urgency to bring back the deal that serves nuclear nonproliferation and regional stability on its track,” he added.
Tehran had reported earlier that the indirect talks, which began on Tuesday, will continue for two days.
The United States withdrew from the agreement on the Iranian nuclear file under its former president, Donald Trump, and re-imposed economic sanctions on Tehran. Iran responded by beginning to retreat from many of its basic commitments, most notably its uranium enrichment levels.
The administration of President Joe Biden is seeking to return to the agreement, considering that this path is the best with the Islamic Republic, despite expressing growing pessimism in recent weeks.
In Vienna, the negotiations made progress that brought those concerned close to completing an agreement, but they have reached a dead end since March, with points of disagreement remaining between Tehran and Washington, especially with regard to Tehran’s demand to remove the name of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the list of “foreign terrorist organizations” Washington adopts it.
Iran also renewed its demand for US guarantees that Washington’s withdrawal from the agreement would not be repeated.
The Biden administration says removing the Revolutionary Guards from the blacklist, a move sure to anger many members of Congress, is outside the scope of talks to revive the nuclear deal.
give up demands
According to the spokesperson European Union Peter Stano, the talks in Doha are not a substitute for the Vienna negotiations, but rather are aimed at resolving outstanding issues between the United States and Iran to allow progress in other talks with the major countries.
The indirect talks took place in Doha with an American delegation headed by the US special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, and took place before Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia in the middle of next month.
The US State Department had announced earlier Wednesday, “We are ready to conclude and implement immediately the agreement we negotiated in Vienna for a mutual return to the full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”
But for that, “Iran needs to decide to give up its additional demands that go beyond the JCPOA,” that is, the nuclear deal.
Iranian officials had previously announced that they hoped to make progress in Qatar.
“We hope to reach a positive and acceptable agreement if the United States abandons Trump’s method, which was not in accordance with international law,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said.
“We are serious and will not cross our red lines in any way,” the Iranian news agency “IRNA” quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying Tuesday in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat.
According to the Iranian minister, “If the US side has serious intentions and is realistic, there is an agreement at hand at this stage and in this round of negotiations at the policy level.”