Vienna talks: Iran says its response aims to facilitate successful conclusion

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Iran has taken into account acceleration and facilitation of finalizing the talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal.

He made the remarks on Friday in a phone conversation with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi. This was the second phone conversation between the two diplomats this week.

“In the process of drawing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s response, acceleration and facilitation of finalizing the talks have been taken into account,” said Amir-Abdollahian.

Appreciating the efforts of Oman, Amir-Abdollahian informed Albusaidi of the latest developments with regard to talks on the removal of sanctions.

The top diplomat reiterated Iran’s determination to clinch “a good, sustainable, and strong agreement.”

The Omani minister, for his part, praised Iran’s “active and constructive” approach, hoping that the talks on the revival of the nuclear deal would yield a satisfying outcome.

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The conversation came as Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kan’ani said early on Friday that Iran’s views were offered following thorough studies by experts. “After receiving the United States’ response, the Islamic Republic’s expert team examined it carefully and Iran’s responses were compiled and submitted to the coordinator tonight,” he said.

“The text that was sent (by Iran) has a constructive approach aimed at finalizing the negotiations.”

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed on Thursday that they have received Iran’s response through European mediators.

“We are studying it and will respond through the EU, but unfortunately it is not constructive,” claimed the official without providing further explanation.

The United States, under former President Donald Trump, abandoned the JCPOA in May 2018 and reinstated unilateral sanctions that the agreement had lifted under what he called the “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran.

The talks to salvage the agreement kicked off in the Austrian capital city of Vienna in April last year, months after Joe Biden succeeded Trump, with the intention of examining Washington’s seriousness in rejoining the deal and removing the anti-Iran sanctions.

Despite notable progress, Washington’s indecisiveness has postponed reaching an agreement between the negotiating parties.

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Meanwhile, four days of intense talks between representatives of Iran and the five remaining parties to the JCPOA ended on August 8 with a modified text proposed by the European Union on the table.

Iran submitted its response to the EU draft proposal on August 15, urging Washington to show “realism and flexibility” in order to reach an agreement.

However, it took almost ten days for the Biden administration to submit its response to Iran’s comments on the EU draft.

Stronger guarantees needed

A day before Tehran’s offering of its views to Europe, Amir-Abdollahian said that the country needs "stronger guarantees" from the American side to clinch an agreement

"We have received the American side's last text, and my colleagues are closely studying the response with the required [level of] rigor and speed," he said while speaking in a joint press conference in Moscow along with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

The top Iranian diplomat, however, asserted that Tehran needed a "stronger text and stronger guarantees" to wrap up the negotiations.

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