Iran negotiator in Vienna for key N-talks

TEHRAN: Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri arrived on Saturday in Vienna ahead of talks aimed at reviving the 2015 deal with world powers on the country’s atomic programme, state media said.

“Heading a delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri has arrived in Vienna, Austria, to attend the next round of the joint commission meeting of the Iran nuclear deal,” said the official IRNA news agency.

The talks, suspended since June, are due to resume on Monday between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.

The United States will take part indirectly.

The deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was designed to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear arsenal by imposing strict limits on its nuclear programme and forcing it to remain exclusively civilian and peaceful.

But it unravelled in 2018 when then president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the accord, before Iran began rolling back its nuclear commitments in retaliation a year later.

The administration of Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, says it is working to return the United States to the accord.

Earlier, the senior Iranian official visited Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates last week, state media said, days before he heads for talks with world powers on his country’s nuclear programme.

The visit by Ali Bagheri, Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator, is the first to Gulf Arab states by an official of the new government of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.

On Wednesday Bagheri, who is also Iran’s deputy foreign minister, travelled to Abu Dhabi where he met Anwar Gargash, adviser to the UAE president.

The discussions focused on strengthening “ties on the basis of good neighbourliness and mutual respect” and developing economic and trade links, the official Emirati news agency WAM said.

On Thursday, Bagheri visited Kuwait where he spoke of “deep ties” between the two countries, according to the official KUNA agency.

Commenting on his tour, Bagheri said there was agreement to “open a new chapter” with the UAE and to “open new horizons” with Kuwait.

Talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers are due to resume in Vienna on Monday, after a suspension since June.

The deal has been gradually disintegrating since former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018.

President Joe Biden’s administration says it is working to return the United States to the accord. The Gulf Arab rulers are said to be concerned that concessions could be made to Iran in the talks. – AFP