BRUSSELS: Iran has agreed to resume talks next month with world powers over its nuclear deal, the country’s deputy foreign minister said Wednesday, after talks with EU mediators in Brussels.
The other participants in the talks — which included indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran — still need to confirm the return to the table.
“We agree to start negotiations before the end of November. Exact date would be announced in the course of the next week,” Ali Bagheri, who also serves as Tehran’s chief negotiator, wrote on Twitter.
The EU and world powers have been scrambling to try to get negotiations in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 accord back on track after the election of a hard-liner in Tehran.
The agreement between Iran and world powers to find a long-term solution to the crisis over its controversial nuclear program has been moribund since former US president Donald Trump walked out of the deal in May 2018 and imposed sweeping sanctions.
His successor Joe Biden has said he is ready to re-enter the agreement, so long as Iran meets key preconditions including full compliance with the deal whose terms it has repeatedly violated by ramping up nuclear activities since the US left the pact.
But the Vienna-based talks through intermediaries made little headway, before being interrupted by the election of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s president and suspended for the last four months.
The US point man on Iran, Rob Malley, on Monday renewed a warning that the United States had “other options” if Iran’s nuclear work advances although he said the Biden administration preferred diplomacy.
The EU acts as coordinator for the deal that also involves Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia.
Iran says agrees to restart nuclear deal talks in Nov
https://arab.news/wemuj
Iran says agrees to restart nuclear deal talks in Nov
- The other participants in the talks still need to confirm the return to the table
- "We agree to start negotiations before the end of November. Exact date would be announced in the course of the next week," Tehran's chief negotiator wrote on Twitter
Most of Iranian women’s soccer team leave Australia
GOLD COAST: The Iranian women’s soccer team left Australia without seven squad members after tearful protests of their departure outside Sydney Airport and frantic final efforts inside the terminal by Australian officials, who sought to ensure the women understood they were being offered asylum.
As the team’s flight time drew nearer and they passed through security late on Tuesday, each woman was taken aside to meet alone with officials who explained through interpreters that they could choose not to return to Iran.
Before the team traveled to the airport, seven women had accepted humanitarian visas allowing them to remain permanently in Australia and were ushered to a safe location by Australian police officers.
One has since changed her mind, underscoring the tense and precarious nature of their decisions.
“In Australia, people are able to change their mind,” said Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who had hours earlier posted photos of the seven women granted humanitarian visas to his social media accounts, their identities clearly visible.
After what Burke described as “emotional” meetings between the remaining women who reached the airport and Australian officials, the rest of the team declined offers of asylum and boarded their flight.
It was a dramatic conclusion to an episode that had gripped Australia since the Iranian team’s first game at the Asian Cup soccer tournament, when they remained silent during their national anthem.
