EU nuclear talks official to visit Iran, says Teheran

TEHERAN－The EU coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, Enrique Mora, will visit Iran on Tuesday over the Vienna talks aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the semiofficial agency Nour News reported.

Nour News, affiliated with Iran's Supreme National Security Council, gave no details about Mora's visit.

On Friday, Iran's foreign minister said the "wrong maximum pressure policy" of the United States is to blame for the status quo on the revival of the 2015 pact.

Making the remarks in a phone conversation with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, criticized the approval of a recent nonbinding motion in the US Senate that seeks to bar the administration of President Joe Biden from possibly removing the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' terrorist designation, Iran's Foreign Ministry said.

Iran and the US continue to exchange messages indirectly through the European Union over the revival of the nuclear deal, Amir Abdollahian said.

He stressed that the US must make a "realistic" and "brave "decision to compensate for what he called its wrong approach in the past to reach a lasting, strong and fair deal.

Describing Iran's initiatives in the Vienna talks as important, Guterres said he hoped the negotiations would continue until a "favorable" agreement was reached.

Separately, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the Financial Times he was seeking a "middle way" to end the impasse, which threatens to scupper more than a year of European diplomatic efforts.

Borrell is considering a scenario whereby the designation is lifted on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps but kept in place on other parts of the organization, which has several arms and a sprawling business empire, the Financial Times reported.

The foreign policy chief said he wanted Mora to visit Teheran to discuss the issue, but added that Iran "was very much reluctant" and described the diplomatic push as "the last bullet".

The report also cited Borrell as saying negotiators would not give Iran an ultimatum.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of US-led sanctions. However, former US president Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting Teheran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA in retaliation.

Since April last year, eight rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital, Vienna, between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties, including Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, to revive the pact. The US has been indirectly involved in the negotiations as it has quit the deal.

Agencies - Xinhua