TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said that the talks in Vienna will not proceed from what was achieved on June 20 but from a joint document reached during the latest round of talks.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Amir Abdollahian said Iran has cast aside the June 20 document, and a new and joint document has been reached during the Vienna talks.

“Today, a new round of talks begins in Vienna. And the issue of guarantees and verification is on our agenda. I think today we have a common and acceptable document on the negotiating table. We call them the December 1 and December 15 documents, both on the nuclear issue and on the sanctions issue. I mean we put aside the June 2021 document and reached a new and joint document,” he said. 

He added, “From today, our negotiations on that joint document will begin, and among the issues on the agenda in our current negotiations is the issue of guarantees and verification.”

He noted, “The most important thing for us is that under these words and issues, we must reach a point where, first, Iranian oil can be sold easily and without any restrictions, and oil money can be deposited in foreign currency in Iranian bank accounts, and we take full advantage of the economic benefits envisaged in the JCPOA.”

After a period of consultations in capitals, negotiators from Iran and the remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal arrived in Vienna on Monday to resume talks on how to remove U.S. sanctions against Iran.

The latest round of talks was concluded more than a week ago with an agreement on some broad principles based on which the next round of the talks would proceed. The last round of talks faced many ups and downs due to Western refusal to take into consideration the change Iran had undergone in the past months in terms of the election of a new president.

The new negotiating team of Iran led by Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani went to Vienna with a set of new proposals on the nuclear and sanctions spheres. The team brought to Vienna many proposals and it managed to present the proposals in stages. Two of the proposals, one related to nuclear measures and the other on sanctions removal steps, were given to the other side.

While Iran underlined that its draft proposals are subject to negotiations, the U.S. and the E3 -France, Britain, and Germany – chose to portray Iran as an uncooperative and unserious negotiating partner. They even hinted at the failure of the talks based on a figment of their imagination.

On the other side, Iran underlined its seriousness to reach a good and swift deal. In a recent phone conversation with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian stressed that a good deal is within reach. He said, “We believe that a good deal is at hand but it requires a shift by some parties away from the language of threat to the language of cooperation and mutual respect that would be also result-based.”

Amir Abdollahian further noted on Twitter that such a deal is at hand if the West shows goodwill.

The Iranian foreign minister also commented on the issue of negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Responding to a Fars reporter's question about whether the time of the fifth round of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia has been decided, he said, “not yet, but we are arranging it.”

Iran and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in talks since last April. So far, four rounds of talks have been held but no agreement has been reached.
Amir Abdollahian gas recently said that Iran will participate in the next round of talks between Tehran and Riyadh soon.

Speaking at a joint presser with his Iraqi counterpart in Tehran, the Iranian foreign minister said a new round of negotiations between Iranian and Saudi delegations would take place in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

“I want to underline that in the most recent round of talks, we offered the Saudi side a series of practical and constructive ideas. The delegates from the two nations will convene in Baghdad soon to work on the next phase of the agreement’s implementation,” he stated.