TEHRAN – In a tweet on Wednesday, Russia’s representative in the Vienna talks described the withdrawal of the U.S. from the JCPOA as shooting itself in the leg.

"Indeed! The decision to withdraw from #JCPOA was like shooting in one of US legs. It doesn’t matter if it was left or right leg" Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations wrote on his Twitter account.

He posted this tweet in response to an American journalist who criticized Trump administration’s decision to leave the JCPOA unilaterally, saying: “We are where we are because of what I consider one of the worst decisions in US foreign policy in the last decade: Getting out of JCPOA...”

In another tweet, he also announced that he has had a meeting with Sadiq Marafi, Kuwait’s representative to the international organizations based in Vienna, to discuss Iran and the Vienna talks.

"Today I met with a good friend of mine H.E. Ambassador Sadiq Marafi of Kuwait. I briefed him about current state of affairs at the #ViennaTalks. We also discussed the prospects of dialogue on security in the Persian Gulf after the restoration of the #JCPOA," the Russian diplomat said.

Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA, namely China, Russia, Germany, Britain and France, began the new rounds of talks in the Austrian capital in April with the aim of lifting the unlawful sanctions imposed against Iran in contrary to the JCPOA.

During the first round of the Vienna talks under President Raisi started on November 29, Iran presented two draft texts which address, separately, the removal of U.S. sanctions and Iran’s return to its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA. Tehran also said it was preparing a third draft text on the verification of the sanctions’ removal.

The Islamic Republic maintains that its presence at the talks is intended to have the U.S. sanctions removed, which would, in turn, secure a U.S. return to the nuclear deal.

The U.S., which is not allowed to directly participate in the talks as a result of its withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018, claims that it is willing to undo the withdrawal and repeal its “maximum pressure” policy against Iran.

Iran argues that the onus is on Washington to return to the 2015 nuclear deal by lifting its illegal sanctions and offering guarantees that it will not exit the pact again.

The newest and last round of talks in Vienna adjourned on Friday. At the end of the talks in the Austrian capital, Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said that the pace of reaching an agreement depends on the will of the opposite side.

"If the other side accepts the rational views and positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the new round of talks can be the last one and we can achieve a deal in the shortest possible time."