A senior US diplomat denied a report that Washington was seeking to delay a seventh round of talks on restoring the Iran nuclear accord to consult with the Zionist entity, but said key disagreements with Tehran were continuing to stymie an agreement.
The State Department official also said that Washington believes talks to restore the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and world powers will not be derailed by the election of Ebrahim Raisi as president.
“We still have serious differences that have not been bridged,” the official said in a phone briefing with reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official said that the sides remained apart on central issues including what steps Tehran needed to take to get back into compliance with the original 2015 JCPOA, AFP reorted.
Former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal three years ago, leading Iran to ramp its enrichment up to its highest ever-levels.
Also still under discussion was what sanctions relief Washington would offer Iran, and the precise sequence of actions to be taken if an agreement is reached, the report said.
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” the official said.
“But we wouldn’t be going back for a seventh round if we didn’t think a deal was possible,” the official was quoted as saying. He said a date for the seventh round had not yet been scheduled.
Speaking to the Times of Israel earlier in the day, the official pushed back against a report claiming that the US wanted more time before the next round of negotiations in order to more closely coordinate its position with the Zionist entity.
“We’re always happy to consult with the Israelis, and are working with the new government to find mutually convenient opportunities to do so, but it is false that we are trying to postpone the next round of talks for this or any other reason. We’ll be happy to go back to Vienna when the Iranians finish their internal consultations,” the senior official told The Times of Israel.
Source: AFP and Times of Israel
