Tehran announced today that the nuclear negotiations expected to resume before the end of next month will be with the 4 + 1 group without the participation of the United States, while Washington has expressed its willingness to return to the talks.
Iranian Assistant Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri said he had agreed with the European Union representative in the nuclear negotiations, Enrique Mora, to resume the Vienna negotiations before the end of next month.
Bagheri said in a televised interview, that the negotiations will be with the 4+1 group, and without the participation of the United States, because Washington is not ready to return to the nuclear agreement, as he put it.
Bagheri stressed that lifting the US sanctions on his country will be at the top of the agenda of the seventh round of negotiations, adding that he had held constructive discussions with the deputy foreign policy official in the European Union, considering that the Union plays a coordinating role in the negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian announced yesterday that his country is determined to engage in nuclear negotiations soon, and that it will maintain the previous framework for talks at the same time.
Abdullahian stressed, in a press conference, that his country will not resume the Vienna negotiations from the blockage point it reached in the previous rounds.
Previous session of talks in Vienna (Reuters)
welcome and warning
For its part, the US State Department confirmed to Al Jazeera the United States' readiness to return to the Vienna negotiations, noting that it had seen reports of Iran's possible return to negotiations, but it did not have any other details on the matter.
She added that it was still possible to reach an understanding on returning to mutual compliance with the nuclear deal, by resolving the few issues that remained outstanding at the end of the sixth round of talks.
The US State Department stressed that this opportunity will not remain available forever as Iran continues to take provocative steps in the nuclear field, as it described it.
For her part, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Washington will remain committed to moving forward on the diplomatic track with regard to the Iranian nuclear file.
In remarks to reporters, Psaki added that the framework under which her country is working is still mutual compliance with the nuclear deal.
unacceptable
In a related context, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said that the International Atomic Energy Agency's publication of detailed reports on the Iranian nuclear program is unacceptable and contradicts the foundations of international treaties.
Kamal Wendy added that the spread of reports on Iran's nuclear program is a new policy taken by the agency under pressure from private parties, stressing that his country has expressed its dissatisfaction with this matter several times to the agency, to no avail.
Kamal Wandi indicated that Tehran will take appropriate steps to stop this behavior, stressing that his country will have to review its dealings with the agency if it continues what he called violating the confidentiality of information obtained during the work of its inspectors in Iran.