Iran and the United States have held indirect talks in Vienna in a last-ditch effort to reinstate a 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian state media reports.
Few expect a breakthrough. Each side has called on the other to compromise, while Tehran’s nuclear program surges forward.
Reuters, citing one Iranian and one European official, reported in June that Tehran had dropped its demand for the removal of its Revolutionary Guards from Washington’s sanctions list.
“We have our own suggestions that will be discussed in the Vienna talks, such as lifting sanctions on the guards gradually,” a senior Iranian official said on Thursday.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday the negotiations were “pretty much complete at this point”.
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani put the onus on the White House to compromise, saying in a tweet the United States should “show maturity & act responsibly”.
As Iran refuses to hold direct talks with the United States, the EU’s Enrique Mora shuttles between Bagheri Kani and the US Special Envoy for Iran, Rob Malley.
Talks broke down chiefly because of Tehran’s demand that Washington remove the Revolutionary Guards from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization list. The US has refused to do so.
Read the article in the Bega District News.