Iran’s nuclear negotiator says he met with EU official on lifting sanctions
Tehran, June 21 (EFE).- Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, said on Wednesday that he held talks with Enrique Mora, the European Union coordinator for the Tehran talks, in Doha.
Bagheri Kani described the meeting in the Qatari capital as “serious and constructive.”
“We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues, including negotiations on lifting sanctions,” he said.
The meeting comes after months of stalled negotiations to salvage the 2015 nuclear agreement, which limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
However, the agreement between Iran and the six world powers became almost ineffective after the United States withdrew in 2018 during Donald Trump’s presidency.
A year later, Iran resumed its nuclear program, violating the commitments made under the agreement.
Currently, the US and Iran are holding indirect talks in Oman to reach a “memorandum of understanding” on a prisoner exchange, limitation of the Iranian nuclear program, and the release of Iranian assets frozen in third countries such as South Korea.
Oman’s Foreign Minister, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, has stated that the US and Iran are “close” to reaching an agreement on prisoner release, a prerequisite for advancing towards a nuclear deal.
Earlier this month, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, stated there was “nothing wrong” with reaching a nuclear agreement with the West but emphasized that Iranian nuclear infrastructure must remain intact.
On Tuesday, President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated this position, stating that Iran never abandoned negotiations with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and indirectly with the United States to save the nuclear deal.
Since Iran began violating its nuclear commitments, its stockpile of enriched uranium has increased to 4,500 kg, surpassing the 300-kg limit set under the 2015 agreement.
This includes 114 kg enriched to 60 percent, a level close to what is needed to produce nuclear weapons. EFE
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