BRUSSELS, Oct 15 Reuters : Iran is not ready to return to talks with the world powers over its nuclear program yet and its new negotiating team wants to discuss the texts that will be put forward when it meets with the EU in Brussels in the next few weeks, a senior EU official said on Friday.
Iran's chief coordinator for talks, Enrique Mora, headed by EU and the world powers, was in Tehran on Thursday to meet members of Iran's nuclear team, four months after discussions broke off between Iran and the world powers.
According to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran has so far refused to resume direct talks with the United States in Vienna on both sides returning to compliance with the accord, under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief.
Diplomats from France, Britain and Germany, who are parties to the accord together with China and Russia, said ahead of Mora's visit that it came at a critical moment and things could not be deemed business as usual given escalating Iranian nuclear activities and the stalling of negotiations.
The United States said that time was running out. They are not yet ready to engage in Vienna, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, adding that he believed Tehran was absolutely decisive to go back to Vienna and to end the negotiations The Islamic Republic has repeatedly stated it will return to the negotiations soon but it has not given a clearer timeline. Western diplomats had hoped the Vienna talks would resume before October.
However, after Mora's visit, the Foreign Ministry of Iran said it would hold talks in the coming days with the EU in Brussels.
They on the basis of their discussions said that they don't want talks for talks, they want talking with practical results and with a final agreement on how to bring JCPOA back to life, the official said.
Aborting a meeting in Brussels as a good idea, the official said it would give both sides the opportunity to go through the texts on the table from June and clarify questions that Iran's new negotiating team may have.
I think we are just clarifying more the situation for a final destination, which is going to be resumed in Vienna. I expect that really soon, he said.
Foreign diplomats have said they are concerned that Tehran's new negotiating team - under a president known as an anti-Western hardliner, unlike his pragmatist predecessor - could make new demands beyond the scope of what had already been agreed. S. president Donald Trump ditched the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Tehran has been rebuilding stocks of enriched uranium, refining it to higher levels of purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up the enrichment process.
President Joe Biden has admitted to doing nothing to restrain Iran's nuclear programme, but they have not agreed on which steps need taking and when.
Iran has long denied an ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.