Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has rejected US allegations of Iranian demands that go beyond the nuclear deal. He said this, IRNA news agency reported Wednesday, at a press conference in Tehran with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdel Rahman Al Thani.
"We are determined to reach lasting agreements, contrary to the statements circulated in the media by the US side that Tehran has demands unrelated to the discussion of the nuclear deal. We don't have any [special] demands," Abdollahian said. He noted that in recent EU-brokered indirect talks between the US and Iran in Doha, one of the main issues was the issue of real guarantees from the US regarding Iran's economic benefits, particularly from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "The US administration must guarantee that Tehran will benefit from [restoring] the JCPOA," the Iranian foreign minister stressed. In addition, he stated Tehran's "serious intentions" to resolve the issue and praised Qatar's "constructive" efforts to advance the negotiations.
In turn, the Qatari foreign minister stressed the need to maintain regional dialogue. "Negotiations between Iran and the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf can have positive results for all the peoples of the region," he said.
Earlier, a number of media outlets reported that the US State Department's Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley said Tehran had demands unrelated to the discussion of its nuclear program.
Indirect talks between the US and Iran on restoring the nuclear deal began in Doha last week. Enrique Mora, the coordinator of the talks and political director of the EU foreign policy service, said Wednesday that the parties had failed to make the progress they had hoped for.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany struck a nuclear deal, the JCPOA, with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear program. Former US President Donald Trump decided in 2018 to withdraw from that deal. The current head of the US administration, Joe Biden, has repeatedly signaled a willingness to bring the US back into the nuclear deal. Russia, Britain, Germany, China, the US and France have been negotiating with Iran in Vienna since April to restore the JCPOA to its original form.
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Based on materials from TASS