#Iran #chief #negotiators #Qatar #nuclear #talks
Iran’s chief negotiator met with his US counterpart in Qatar on Tuesday ahead of indirect talks between the two rivals aimed at revitalizing a landmark nuclear deal, officials and media said.
Ali Bagheri and his delegation arrived in Doha, Iran’s IRNA news agency said, after US special envoy Robert Malley held talks with Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
The US-Iran talks, set to take place this week, will take place separately from broader EU-brokered negotiations in Vienna between Iran and major powers that have been going on for more than a year.
Malley and Sheikh Mohammed met “to discuss the strong partnership and our joint diplomatic efforts to resolve issues with Iran,” the US Embassy in Doha tweeted.
The 2015 nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it and began once again imposing harsh economic sanctions on America’s nemesis.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to return to the deal, saying it is the best way forward with the Islamic Republic, despite expressing mounting pessimism in recent weeks.
The talks in Doha will take place indirectly – with the delegations in separate rooms communicating through an intermediary. The US and Iran do not have diplomatic relations.
Sheikh Mohammed also discussed the Iran talks with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna in a phone call on Tuesday, Qatar’s official news agency said.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said it hopes the “indirect talks will yield positive outcomes that will help revive the nuclear deal signed in 2015.”
Talks to revive the nuclear deal began in Vienna in April last year but collapsed in March after disagreements between Tehran and Washington, notably over Iran’s request to remove its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a US terrorist list.
Social Tags:
#Iran #chief #negotiators #Qatar #nuclear #talks
