IRAN, CHINA AND EU TOLD VIRTUAL TALK TO SEEK U.S. RETURN TO NUKE PACT

Iran and the remaining world powers in the 2015 nuclear deal will hold a virtual meeting on Friday to discuss the US’s return to the accord, the European Union (EU) said in a statement, Golnar Motevalli and Jonathan Tirone reported for Bloomberg News.

The discussion, which will involve officials from Iran, Russia, China, Germany, France and the UK, will be chaired by the EU’s top foreign envoy Josep Borrell and address how the landmark agreement can be fully implemented by all sides, according to the statement.

The US has been trying to use Europe as an intermediary with Iran after Tehran rebuffed talks with the Biden administration on reviving the accord that former President Donald Trump abandoned. After Trump disavowed the agreement, Iran breached some of the limits that it placed on its nuclear program.

“We obviously welcome this as a positive step,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington on Thursday. He said the US is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 agreement “consistent with” Iran doing the same and has been exploring “the best way to achieve this, including through a series of mutual, initial steps.”

“We have been looking at options for doing so, including with indirect conversations through our mutual European partners,” Price said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this month that his nation was in “no hurry” to revive the nuclear deal and said US policy was doomed to fail unless sanctions against the Islamic Republic were first removed, Peter Martin also reported for Bloomberg News.

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