TEHRAN – Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the New-York based United Nations said on Tuesday that the Vienna talks “can be win-win situation for all”.

The remarks by Iran’s top diplomat to the UN, who was involved in crafting the 2015 nuclear deal, came as senior diplomats from Iran and the P4+1 nations met in Vienna on how to revitalize the agreement. 

The U.S. also sent its diplomatic team, led by President Biden’s special envoy for Iran Robert Malley, to Vienna for backchannel talks with diplomats from P4+1 group.

The talks took place within the JCPOA Joint Commission which the European Union is responsible for.

The Tuesday meeting in Vienna was arranged in the virtual talks between Iran and P4+1 countries on Friday. 

Iran & P4+1 resuming nuclear talks in Vienna today.

The US has so far failed to honor @POTUS campaign promise to rejoin the JCPOA. So this opportunity shouldn't be wasted.

If US lifts all sanctions, Iran will then cease all remedial measures.

Can be win-win situation for all.

— Majid Takht Ravanchi (@TakhtRavanchi) April 6, 2021

The U.S. was not present in Friday’s talks.

Although the new U.S. administration has expressed willingness to enter direct talks with the Iranian side, official in Iran has said there will be no talks until the U.S. lifts all illegal and unjustified sanctions. 

Iran has said even there will be no indirect talks with the American side in Vienna.

Takht Ravanchi said the new U.S. administration “has so far failed to honor” campaign promises by President Joe Biden to rejoin the nuclear agreement.

The diplomat suggested that “this opportunity should not be wasted.”

He reiterated Tehran’s long-held position that if the U.S. lifts all sanctions, then the Islamic Republic will “cease all remedial measures”. 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a withdrawal of the U.S. from the JCPOA in May 2018 and returned previous sanctions and ordered new ones within his “maximum pressure” policy. Iran waited for a year to see whether the European trio – Britain, France, and Germany - would compensate Iran for the U.S. sanctions. However, Iran started to gradually remove limits on its nuclear activities after seeing no concrete action by the European side. 

Iran’s actions were in accordance to paragraph 36 of the JCPOA which has “provided a mechanism to resolve disputes and allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.”

PA/PA