Iran FM Stresses Need for End to US’ Excessive Demands in JCPOA Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian underlined the need for the US to adopt a realistic approach in the Vienna talks on the revival of the JCPOA, saying Washington must abandon its excessive demands for the negotiations to succeed.
“The United States must abandon its excessive demands so that weeks of intensive efforts by different sides in Vienna will lead to the necessary outcome, namely a return by all sides to their commitments”, Amirabdollahian said a meeting in China with his Qatari counterpart.
The two top diplomats, as well as foreign ministers and representatives of several other countries, are in China to attend the 3rd Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan’s Neighboring Countries.
Amirabdollahian and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani also talked about bilateral cooperation and regional developments.
The Qatari official stressed the enhancement of ties between the two countries and hailed Iran’s active participation in the Doha Forum.
He also underscored Iran’s involvement in regional security arrangements and hoped that serious talks in this regard will take place in the region.
The Vienna talks, meant to resurrect the JCPOA, were paused earlier this month for an undetermined period of time despite reports suggesting that they were in the “final stages.”
The United States, which is blamed for the current stalemate, is reluctant to take confidence-building measures due to its erroneous bias, procrastination in decision-making and excessive demands.
Iranian officials have repeatedly said the US needs to remove all illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic in a verifiable manner and offer guarantees that a new US administration will not breach the JCPOA again before it can rejoin the deal.
Former US president Donald Trump unilaterally left the JCPOA in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions that the deal had lifted. He also placed additional sanctions on Iran under other pretexts not related to the nuclear case as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign.
