Iran’s FM to hold talks on nuclear deal in Moscow Tuesday: Official

The US unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump.

AFP file

By AFP

Published: Mon 14 Mar 2022, 12:23 PM

Tehran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will head to Moscow on Tuesday, his ministry said, days after negotiations on an Iran nuclear deal stalled amid new Russian demands.

Amir-Abdollahian will “go to Moscow on Tuesday” to continue discussions on the nuclear deal, ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on Monday.

Ten months of talks in Vienna have brought major powers close to renewing a landmark 2015 agreement on regulating Iran’s nuclear programme.

But the negotiations were halted again after Russia on March 5 demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has dismissed as “irrelevant” the Russian demands for guarantees, saying that they “just are not in any way linked together”.

The current round of negotiations started in late November in the Austrian capital between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, with the US taking part indirectly.

The 2015 deal gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

But the US unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and imposed tough economic sanctions on different sectors, including oil exports.