Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Sunday, said that the agreement is “close” in suspended multilateral talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and P+1 powers i.e. France, Britain, Russia China, the United States and Germany indirectly.

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed in 2015 between both sides which allowed Iran to retain limited nuclear power for peaceful purposes on a condition that Tehran will not pursue any strategic weapon program in the future.  The deal was welcomed globally but in 2018, the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement. Iran was once again put under harsh sanctions by Trump adminstration.

“We are close to an agreement in the negotiations,” Amir-Abdollahian said during a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to a statement by the ministry.

According to media reports,  it took nearly a year of negotiations which brought both parties close to renewing the landmark 2015 accord.

Though no direct communication took place between both sides in Vienna messages are passed through other participants and the European Union, the talks’ coordinator.

“We have passed on our proposals on the remaining issues to the American side through the EU senior negotiator, and now the ball is in US court,” Iran’s top diplomat added.

Russian invasion in Ukraine raised some serious question marks on the future of these negotiations. Due to these events the negotiations were halted last month as well. Russia demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran. Later on Moscow announced that it had received the necessary guarantees from Washington on trade with Iran.

Among the key sticking points is Tehran’s demand to remove from the US terror list the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran’s military.

Washington recently confirmed sanctions on the Guards would stay despite Iranian optimism for renewal of the 2015 deal.

News Desk