The West and the US need to take the first step in negotiating the Iranian nuclear deal; as of today, Tehran does not trust them, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali said in an interview with Russia-24 TV channel.
"We are ready for equal negotiations, but we have distrust in the West, in the current circumstances, in the United States, and now they have to take the first step [in negotiating the nuclear deal], they have to act," the ambassador said.
He said Tehran has never given up talks on Iran's nuclear program for 20 years, but Western representatives have repeatedly stopped the dialogue.
"We signed on to the JCPOA and have been implementing it, your country both as a member of the IAEA and as a member of the UN Security Council could see that we were complying with everything. And who was the first to withdraw from the JCPOA? The Americans. What kind of logic did they use? They didn't," Jalali said.
The Permanent Five of the UN Security Council and Germany (the five plus one group) signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear development. Previous US President Donald Trump decided in 2018 to withdraw from this arrangement. Current US leader Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled a willingness to bring Washington back into the nuclear deal with Tehran. Russia, Britain, Germany, China, the US and France have been negotiating with Iran in Vienna to restore the JCPOA to its original form since last April.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from TASS