BRUSSELS, Oct 15 Reuters - Iran is not ready to return to talks with the world powers over its nuclear programme 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, said a senior EU official on Friday.
Co-chair of the EU political director Enrique Mora, was in Tehran on Thursday to meet members of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, four months after discussions broke off between Iran and world powers.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi refused to resume economic talks with the United States at Vienna on both sides returning to compliance with the deal, in return for indirect sanctions relief, under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for indirect 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 time and things could not be deemed business as usual given escalating Iranian nuclear activities and the stalling of negotiations. The United States government admitted that time was running out. They are not yet ready for engaging in Vienna, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, adding that he believed Tehran was absolutely determined to go back to Vienna and end the negotiations. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly said it will soon return to negotiations, but has not given a clearer timeline. Western diplomats had hoped the Vienna talks could resume before the end of October.
However, after Mora's visit, Iran's foreign ministry said it would hold talks with the EU in Brussels in the coming days.
They insisted that they don't want talks for talks; they want talking with practical results and a final agreement on how to bring JCPOA back to life, the official said.
Describing a meeting in Brussels as a good idea the official said that 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 can have.
I think we are just clarifying even more the situation for a final destination, which is going to resume in Vienna. I expect that soon, said he.
Western diplomats have said they are concerned that Tehran's new negotiating team - under a president recognized as an anti-Western hardliner, unlike his pragmatist predecessor - could make new demands over the scope of what had already been agreed.
Since then-U. In 2018, President Donald Trump reimposed the deal and ditched sanctions on Iran. Tehran has been rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher levels of purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up the enrichment process.
President Biden aims to restore the deal to restrain Iran's nuclear program, but the sides have not agreed on which steps need to be taken and when.
Iran has denied any ambition to have nuclear weapons in the past.