Iran receives notes from nuke deal parties

TEHERAN — The Iranian foreign minister said on Sunday that Iran has received messages through Qatar from the parties to a 2015 nuclear deal, including the United States.

At a joint media conference with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani after their meeting in Teheran, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian appreciated Qatar's goodwill in helping bring all sides closer to the final steps toward reaching an agreement on the revival of the nuclear deal, official news agency IRNA reported.

For his part, the Qatari foreign minister said the US has handed over a series of messages to Qatar to be conveyed to Iran, adding the messages are related to the nuclear agreement but perhaps not directly, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country.

The US pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Teheran.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough was achieved after the latest round of talks in August 2022.

At the media conference, Amir-Abdollahian criticized a recent drone attack as "cowardly".

Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early on Sunday, causing some damage at the plant amid heightened regional and international tensions engulfing the republic.

Attack on defense factory

The Iranian Defense Ministry offered no information on who it suspected carried out the attack, which came as a refinery fire separately broke out in the country's northwest and a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck nearby, killing three people.

"Such moves can't impact our nuclear scientists' will and intentions to achieve peaceful nuclear energy," Amir-Abdollahian said.

Commenting on ties with Saudi Arabia, the Iranian foreign minister said that Iran and Saudi Arabia are expected to resume talks on normalizing ties soon, the IRNA reported.

Amir-Abdollahian also said that Iran's ties with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have improved as the two Arab states have already sent their ambassadors back to Teheran.

He said an indirect exchange of messages between Iran and Bahrain is continuing through a mediator, adding the two sides could very well pass through the stage of talks and enter the next phase.

Agencies - Xinhua