Advisor Rejects Saudi-owned TV's 'Completely False' Report About JCPOA Talks

Wednesday, 24 August 2022 9:59 PM 

Mohammad Marandi, an advisor to the Iranian negotiating team in the Vienna talks

An advisor to the Iranian negotiating team has roundly rejected a Saudi-owned TV channel's "erroneous report" about the ongoing talks aimed at potentially salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

The Al-Arabiya television channel alleged on Wednesday that the United States rejected all conditions set by Iran in its comments on a proposal forwarded by the European Union to help the negotiations move forward.

"This claim made by Al-Arabiya is completely false," Mohammad Marandi tweeted.

"Iran has just begun studying the response and will inform the coordinator afterwards," he added.

The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry says the Islamic Republic has received the US response to the EU proposal on JCPOA revival, and will announce its position following careful assessment.

Iran and world countries, including the US, struck the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2015.

However, in a unilateral and illegal move, the US pulled out of the deal in May 2018, under pressure from the Israeli regime and its influential lobby groups in Washington. After withdrawing from the deal, the US also reinstated the draconian sanctions that the deal had lifted.

Since April last year, the Austrian capital of Vienna has been playing host to talks aimed at examining the prospect of Washington's return to the JCPOA, and fresh removal of the sanctions.

The European Union, which acts as the talks' coordinator, recently forwarded the fresh proposal to the Islamic Republic in order to break the impasse that has affected the negotiations due to American procrastination.

Iran submitted its response to the EU draft proposal on August 15.

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, hailed Tehran's response to the proposal as "reasonable," apparently placing the onus on the United States to clarify its stance concerning the proposal.