TEHRAN – Iran has made it clear that recent Western calls for Tehran to take the draft deal currently on the table will not make it budge and that the conclusion of the nuclear talks depends on the United States moderating its negotiating position. 

Iranian President Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim Raisi rarely speaks about the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But after France and the United States ramped up their rhetoric against Iran and accused it of procrastination, Ayatollah Raisi spoke in detail on Iran’s positions toward the JCPOA. 

On Tuesday, the new French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, claimed that there were only a few weeks to revive the nuclear deal. “There is still a window of opportunity ... for Iran to finally decide to accept an accord which it worked to build, but time is passing,” she said. “The window of opportunity will close in a few weeks. There will not be a better accord to the one which is on the table.” 

She accused Iran of using delaying tactics and of going back on previously agreed positions while forging ahead with its uranium enrichment program, according to Reuters. “Time is passing. Tehran must realize this,” she warned. 

A senior U.S. official also told Reuters that “every day that goes by without a deal makes reaching a deal less likely.”

On the other hand, Iran has said JCPOA talks will resume soon but that does not mean that Tehran will be acquiescing to U.S. demands or stepping back from its own positions. 

Nasser Kanaani, the new spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said on Wednesday that the time and place of the next round of nuclear talks will soon be announced. “The way to continue the negotiations and the place for the negotiations is being discussed,” Kanaani said. 

Meanwhile, President Raisi has said that Iran will stick to its positions. Speaking in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Raisi reacted to American demands for Iran to return to the JCPOA. “The Americans have said that Iran should return to the JCPOA, while the Islamic Republic of Iran has never withdrawn from the JCPOA and it was America who violated the JCPOA,” he said, adding, “Today, it is a question not only for the Europeans, who are allies of the Americans in the negotiations, but also for all the nations around the world that why the United States did not adhere to its commitments in the JCPOA and withdrew from it.”

Underlining that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not back down from its rightful and logical positions, President Raisi advised the Americans to see the facts and learn from the past instead of repeating the failed experience of maximum pressure on the Iranian nation.

He said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has always acted completely rationally in negotiations with the P5+1 and P4+1 and stated its reasonable demands. Even today, the negotiation team has not raised any demands outside of the frameworks, and is acting according to standards in continuation of the path that has been taken so far.”

The U.S. and some of its European allies have accused Iran of raising issues beyond the scope of the JCPOA. But Iran has reiterated its position that its demands are in strict accordance with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal.