Washington/Berlin | The Biden administration said on Thursday (Friday AEDT) it was ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
It has also reversed the Trump administration’s determination that all UN sanctions against Iran had been restored, and eased stringent restrictions on the domestic US travel of Iranian diplomats posted to the United Nations.
The State Department said the US would accept an invitation from the European Union to attend a meeting of the participants in the original agreement. The US has not participated in a meeting of those participants since former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.
“The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Such an invitation has not yet been issued but one is expected shortly, following discussions earlier on Thursday between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British, French and German counterparts.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the administration notified the Security Council that it had withdrawn Mr Trump’s September 2020 invocation of the so-called “snapback” mechanism under which it maintained that all UN sanctions against Iran had been reimposed. That determination had been vigorously disputed by nearly all other UN members and had left the US isolated at the world body.
Read the article by Matthew Lee and Geir Moulson in the Financial Review.