Qatar steps in to hold informal nuclear talks between Iran and US
As per a Reuters report quoting Iranian media, in a bid to break the months-long impasse in negotiations to reinstate the 2015 nuclear pact, Qatar will now host indirect talks between Iran and the United States. Robert Malley, the United States’ special envoy for Iran, was scheduled to meet with the Qatari foreign minister on Monday, according to a source briefed on the trip, reports Reuters. Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s lead nuclear negotiator, will arrive in Doha for the discussions on Tuesday and Wednesday, as per an Iranian official. According to Mohammad Marandi, a media assistant to Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, “Iran has chosen Qatar to host the talks because of Doha’s friendly ties with Tehran.” Marandi was speaking to the ISNA news agency.
After 11 months of indirect negotiations between Tehran and US President Joe Biden’s administration, the pact appeared to be close to being completed in March. However, since then, the negotiations have been put on hold, mostly as a result of Tehran’s insistence that Washington removes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its elite security force, from the list of foreign terrorist organisations.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Monday that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
As per a Reuters report from last week, an Iranian official and a European official told the news agency that Iran has dropped its demand for the lifting of the FTO restrictions on the IRGC. However, there were still two concerns, including one related to sanctions, that needed to be resolved.
Iran’s nuclear activities were constrained by the 2015 nuclear agreement in exchange for the removal of international sanctions. In 2018, the US withdrew from the agreement when then-President Donald Trump reinstituted strict economic sanctions against Tehran.
(With inputs from agencies)
