This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Iran’s foreign minister has said the outcome of the ongoing talks in Vienna aimed at reviving a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers depends on Washington’s flexibility.
During a phone call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on August 7, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reiterated that his country was “serious about reaching a strong and lasting agreement,” the Foreign Ministry said on August 7.
“The outcome of this matter depends on whether the United States wants to make an agreement,” he added.
Talks to salvage the 2015 agreement resumed on August 4, months after they had stalled. But prospects for a breakthrough have dampened as Iran rapidly advances its nuclear work and political opposition to the deal increases in Washington.
Iran has backtracked on its obligations to curtail its atomic activities, such as uranium enrichment, after Washington unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear pact under then-President Donald Trump in 2018.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has found that Iran subsequently exceeded the agreed enrichment rate of 3.67 percent, rising to 20 percent in early 2021.
It then crossed an unprecedented 60-percent threshold, getting closer to the 90 percent needed to make a bomb.
