SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Window for nuclear talks still open, Iran FM says
Muscat, Dec 28 (AFP) Dec 28, 2022
Iran is still open to negotiations for reviving a nuclear deal with global powers but warned on Wednesday it would alter course if the West doesn't change its behaviour.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the comments on the sidelines of a visit to Oman, a Gulf state which played a mediating role in the build-up to the original 2015 agreement.

That deal between Tehran and global powers was designed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. Tehran has always denied such a goal.

Amir-Abdollahian's meeting in Muscat with Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tareq came alongside stalled international talks to revive the 2015 pact.

Washington abandoned the deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions, prompting Iran to begin reneging on its own commitments.

On-off talks to revive the agreement began in April last year but Iran has now been hit with additional Western sanctions for its repression of nationwide anti-regime protests since September, and the supply of drones to Russia.

Washington said in early October that a return to the nuclear deal was unlikely in the near future.

"The window for reaching an agreement on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not always be open," Amir-Abdollahian said in a video issued by Iranian state media.

"If the opposite parties do not stop hypocrisy, especially the Americans, and the Westerners do not act realistically, it is not certain that the window that is open today will remain open tomorrow," he said.

"If the Westerners want to continue their hypocritical and interventionist behaviour, we will move in the direction of another plan."

Iran blames foreign powers for stoking what it calls "riots" in its country.

The official Oman News Agency said the Iranian minister handed the sultan a letter from Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, who visited Oman in May.

Without elaborating, ONA said the letter "deals with areas of cooperation between Oman and Iran in various fields".

Responding earlier to a question about a potential Omani mediation role in the stalled nuclear talks, the Iranian minister said "Omani authorities have always played a positive and constructive role in bringing the views of the parties closer" together.

US President Joe Biden has said that the nuclear deal was "dead," but he would not announce that publicly, according to a video that surfaced this month.

str/bur/ho/aem/it/dwo




ONA


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Macron says Europe must become 'space power' again
NASA raises chance for asteroid to hit moon
Tidal forces from the Sun may have shaped Mercury's tectonic features

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Tesla expected to launch long-discussed robotaxi service
Israeli army says struck ' inactive nuclear reactor' in Iran's Arak
New Zealand targets leadership in superconducting space tech with new research alliance

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Trump says US strikes 'obliterated' Iran nuclear sites
Israelis emerge from shelters to devastation after Iran attacks
Japan spots Chinese ships near disputed isles for record 216 straight days

24/7 News Coverage
NASA scientists find ties between Earth's oxygen and magnetic field
How did life survive 'Snowball Earth'? In ponds, study suggests
Arctic warming spurs growth of carbon-soaking peatlands



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.