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Iran on Sunday demanded that the UN nuclear guard “completely” resolve outstanding issues surrounding nuclear material issues at undeclared sites amid resumption of talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal.
Talks to revive the deal on Iran’s nuclear program resumed in Vienna this week, months after stalling.
Iranian sources have indicated that one of the main sticking points is an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into trace amounts of nuclear material found at undeclared Iranian sites.
“We believe that the agency should solve the remaining security problems entirely through technical means, distancing itself from irrelevant and unconstructive political issues,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
During a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Amir-Abdollahian reiterated that his country “is serious about reaching a strong and lasting agreement,” Iran’s foreign ministry said.
“The outcome of this matter depends on whether the United States wants to reach an agreement,” he added.
The IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution in June chiding Iran for failing to adequately explain the earlier discovery of trace amounts of enriched uranium at three previously undeclared sites.
But Tehran argued on Friday that the issues surrounding the undeclared sites “are political in nature and should not be used as a pretext for abuses against Iran in the future.”
“Nuclear weapons have no place in the doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran and are contrary to our policies and beliefs,” Amir-Abdollahian reiterated on Sunday.
Negotiations to revive the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, began in April 2021 before stalling in March.
The 2015 deal gave Iran sanctions lifting in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon – something it has always denied wanting to do so.
But the unilateral US withdrawal from the deal in 2018 and the re-imposition of harsh economic sanctions prompted Iran to backtrack on its own commitments.
However, Russia’s envoy in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Sunday that talks are “going in the right direction”.
A successful conclusion could be “reached very soon, but no guarantees – as always, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” he told reporters outside the Hotel Palais Coburg where the talks are taking place.
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