The United States and the Europeans: Iran must return 'quickly' to nuclear talks
The United States and three European powers agreed Friday during consultations in Paris on the need for Iran to return quickly to nuclear talks, amid growing concern over the delay.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said US envoy on Iran Rob Malley had spoken with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany about how diplomacy could continue to "provide the most effective course" on Iran.
"We are united in the belief that negotiations should resume in Vienna as quickly as possible, and pick up exactly where they left off after the sixth round," Price told reporters in Washington.
Iran and six major powers (the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China, and Germany) reached an agreement in 2015 on Tehran's nuclear program, which allowed for the lifting of many sanctions imposed on it, in exchange for restricting its nuclear activities and ensuring the peace of its program.
However, the effects of the agreement have become null and void since the United States decided to unilaterally withdraw from it in 2018, during the era of its former president, Donald Trump, who re-imposed sanctions on Tehran.
About a year after the US withdrawal from the agreement, Iran has gradually retreated from implementing most of its basic obligations under it.
The forces that are still affiliated with the agreement, with indirect American participation, began talks in Vienna this year in an attempt to revive the agreement, after the new US President Joe Biden expressed his willingness to return his country to it.
The parties concerned held six rounds of talks between April and June, without specifying a new date for their resumption.
For its part, the French Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that the talks will take place at a "critical stage" at a time when France and other countries are still ready to resume the Vienna talks.
"In the meantime, it is urgent and essential that Iran stop its grave violations to an unprecedented extent" of the nuclear agreement, the statement added, calling on Iran to resume full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency "without delay."
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