Iran said nuclear talks that resumed in Vienna should focus on lifting sanctions on the Islamic republic and “guarantees” that the US will return to the fold.
Negotiations to salvage the 2015 Iran nu-clear deal restarted in late November, after a five-month hiatus following the election of ultraconser-vative Iran President Ebrahim Raisi.
The talks seek to bring back the United States, after it withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then president Don-ald Trump and began imposing sanctions on Iran.
Iran has reported progress in the talks, but European diplomats have warned they are “rapidly reaching the end of the road”.
US negotiator Rob Malley has said there are only “weeks” left to revive the deal, if Iran continues its current pace of nuclear activities.
“The 8th round of the Vienna Talks just started,” Alain Matton, spokesman for the EU, which is chairing the discussions, wrote on Twitter.
– Ahead of the resumption, Iran s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the agenda on Monday should be “the issue of guarantees and verification” on the lifting of US sanctions if Washington returns to the accord.—Agencies