DUBAI (Reuters) – Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have come closer than ever to an agreement, but essential issues remain to be negotiated, the top Iranian negotiator said on Thursday.
“We achieved good, tangible progress on the different issues …. we are closer than even to an agreement but there are still essential issues under negotiations,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted as telling Al Jazeera television.
Then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 deal in 2018 and reimposed economic sanctions lifted by the deal.
“We want to make sure that what happened when Trump pulled out of the deal will not be repeated by any other American president in the future,” Araqchi told the pan-Arab satellite TV network.
Biden in Geneva on Tuesday voiced support for speeding up approval of the financial transfers needed to deliver more food and medicines to Iran through a Swiss humanitarian channel, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said.
The sixth round of talks to revive the deal resumed in Vienna on Saturday between Iran and world powers.
Reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear accord will have to await the formation of a new Iranian government, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in remarks published on Wednesday, adding a deal needed political will from all parties.
Araqchi said Iran’s presidential election on Friday will have no effect on the negotiations and the Iranian negotiating team will continue the talks regardless of domestic policy.
Iran’s new president is expected to name his Cabinet by mid-August. The term of current President Hassan Rouhani ends on Aug. 3, a government spokesman said.
(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli and Dubai newsroom)
