FM: Iran never left negotiations over nuclear deal revival
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday that Tehran has never left the negotiation table, saying that his country is committed to resolving the nuclear dispute with world powers through diplomacy.
“We have always wanted the return of all parties to full compliance of the 2015 nuclear deal,” Amir-Abdollahian told reporters in a televised news conference on Monday.
He said that Iran has been negotiating and exchanging indirect messages with the US for months about the revival of the nuclear agreement, stressing that Tehran has never considered a temporary agreement on its nuclear program.
The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached in 2015 between Iran and world powers, including the United States. It enabled limited sanction relief for the Islamic Republic, which, in turn, volunteered to change some aspects of its nuclear work.
The US, however, left the agreement in 2018 under former president Donald Trump, returning all the sanctions that the deal had lifted.
Negotiations to revive the agreement started in April 2021. The talks have, however, stalled amid Washington’s refusal to offer guarantees that it would not ditch the deal again.
Iran’s frozen assets
Regarding a recent agreement reached between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s frozen assets in South Korea, Amir-Abdollahian said the released funds are being transferred to a European bank, and then they will be sent to a bank in one of the countries in the Middle East region.
He noted that the funds would be used for purchases of non-sanctioned goods – a move that the Iranian top diplomat described as hostile.
Iran and the US have reached a prisoner swap deal that would see the release of prisoners from both sides and includes the release of $6 billion worth of Iran’s assets that have been frozen in South Korea for years.
Arash gas field
During the Monday press conference, the Iranian foreign minister also pointed to the long-running dispute over the Arash or Al-Dorra gas field between Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, saying that Iran and Kuwait have held two rounds of negotiations on the issue.
It is definitely important to determine the boundaries through technical negotiations, he added.
Amir-Abdollahian noted that the three countries must pursue this issue through diplomacy.
The territorial dispute over the strategically important maritime gas field, which dates to the 1960s, has escalated again in recent weeks, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia repeating their claims.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Saad al-Barrak recently reiterated the country’s new position over the dispute and called on Iran to validate its claim to the field by demarcating its maritime borders first.