RUSSIA CONFIDENT OF BREAKTHROUGH IN NEW IRAN NUKE TALKS

Russia has said that it sees possibilities for an agreement, ahead of new international nuclear talks with Iran, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

"We don't have to invent anything new," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Moscow on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency. Broadly speaking, he said, the goal is to return to the nuclear agreement negotiated in 2015. "Can this be achieved overnight? It is probably possible if there is the political will," he said. But all parties would have to come towards each other, Ryabkov said. "This is quite feasible."

Talks are to begin in Vienna on Tuesday between Iran and the agreement's signatories: China, Germany, France, Britain, and Russia. Tehran has made clear that it would not negotiate with the United States in the process.

In 2018, the US president at the time, Donald Trump, had unilaterally terminated the nuclear agreement. The meeting is seen as a serious attempt to still save the deal. "We respect this decision of the Iranian side," Ryabkov said.

According to the US, the working-level negotiations were to clarify which steps Iran would have to take back in expanding its nuclear program and which sanctions the US would have to lift to allow a return to the agreement. The deal is meant to ensure that Iran does not acquire the capabilities to build a nuclear bomb. After the US withdrawal, Tehran had gradually ignored almost all the provisions of the agreement. Russia is campaigning with the other signatories for the treaty to remain in place.

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