Iran says nuclear talks to resume in 'coming days'

Indirect talks between Iran and the US to revive the 2015 nuclear deal are poised to resume following a renewed diplomatic push from the EU to break a months-long deadlock.

"We are prepared to resume talks in the coming days," Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on 25 June after meeting with the EU's foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell in Tehran.

"What is important for Iran is to fully receive the economic benefits of the 2015 accord," Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that he held a "long but positive conversation" with Borrell on "global co-operation between Iran and the EU".

Borrell confirmed that talks on resurrecting the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will restart imminently. "The coming days means the coming days. I mean quickly, immediately," he said. "We are going to break this stalemate."

Borrell arrived in Tehran for a two-day visit on 24 June, his first to the Iranian capital since February 2020. The EU has been acting as an intermediary in the indirect negotiations between Iran and the US to restore the nuclear deal since they began in Vienna more than a year ago. The talks ground to a halt in early March, just as all parties to the negotiations were indicating that an agreement might be close. Iran's foreign ministry said at the time that a deal was "above 98pc" done.

The process initially hit a roadblock when Russia demanded a waiver from US and European sanctions imposed in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine in order to allow it to continue its nuclear co-operation with Iran. Moscow withdrew that demand soon after, but by that point further cracks had appeared.

Tehran has for months insisted that the US remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from its list of foreign terrorist organisations — something the US has repeatedly said it is not prepared to do as it falls outside the JCPOA's remit. Last month, Amir-Abdollahian insisted that there is more to the ongoing deadlock than this single issue, saying the US had not yet given guarantees that Tehran will gain the full economic benefits promised to it under the JCPOA.

On the eve of Borrell's trip to Tehran, the US State Department's special Iran envoy Rob Malley "reiterated firm US commitment to come back to the deal", according to the EU's co-ordinator on the talks Enrique Mora. In a tweet on 24 June, Malley said the US remains "committed to the path of meaningful diplomacy, in consultation with our European partners".

A restoration of the nuclear deal in its original form would remove US sanctions on Iran's oil sector and could add another 1.3mn-1.4mn b/d of Iranian crude to global supply within 6-9 months of its implementation, according to Argus estimates. Given the prevailing high oil price and the erosion of spare crude capacity globally, a full resumption of Iranian exports would be a welcome boost to consumer countries struggling with accelerating inflation and stuttering economic growth.

By Bachar Halabi