Stalled talks between Iran and world powers to reinstate a 2015 nuclear deal will resume "soon", the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference in the Qatari capital Doha, Borrell was referring to indirect talks between Tehran and Washington in Vienna that began in April and were adjourned two days after Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election in June.
Borrell said he believed the negotiations aimed at bringing back Tehran and Washington into full compliance with the agreement will resume "within an acceptable period of time".
After former US President Donald Trump ditched the deal three years ago and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Tehran has been rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, enriching it to higher levels of fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up production.
President Joe Biden aims to restore the deal, but the sides disagree on which steps need to be taken and when, with the key issues being what nuclear limits Tehran will accept and what sanctions Washington will remove.
Western powers have urged Iran to return to negotiations and said time is running out as Tehran's nuclear program is advancing well beyond the limits set by the deal.
Tehran says its nuclear steps are reversible if Washington lifts all sanctions. Iranian and Western officials have said many issues remain to be resolved before the accord can be revived.
Echoing Iran's official stance, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman told Le Monde newspaper that "Iran has reached conclusion that we certainly will return to the nuclear talks" in Vienna.
Saeed Khatibzadeh added that Iran would not "waste an hour before returning to Vienna talks once a re-evaluation of the sixth round of the nuclear talks" is completed by Raisi's government.
"The Biden administration should finally make a decision: either it wants to preserve Trump's legacy or it wants to build Biden's. This is a purely political decision," Reuters quoted Khatibzadeh as saying, adding that "We don't have a lot of time ahead of us".
Despite Iran's need to bolster its economy by negotiating an end to US sanctions, insiders expect Raisi to adopt a tougher line when the Vienna talks resume.
