Ulyanov: West lacks political will to negotiate nuclear deal

02 March 2023

Iran, Russia and China have the political will to negotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program (JCPOA), while the West fails to do so, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna told TASS.


"The only thing needed for the 'revival' of the nuclear deal at this stage is for all participants in the Vienna talks to return to the Austrian capital and promptly bring the negotiation process to a successful conclusion. This is entirely possible, given the appropriate political will. Iran, Russia, and China have it. We do not see this from the Western countries," he said.


Commenting on Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian's words that his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein had received assurances from representatives of the US administration that Washington was interested in settling the disagreements with Tehran, which prevent the revival of the nuclear deal, Ulyanov noted that Russia "has no reasons to doubt the words" of the Iranian foreign minister. "At the same time, we do not observe any readiness on the part of the United States and the Euro-Troika (Britain, Germany, France) to resume the Vienna talks on the JCPOA," the Russian envoy added.


The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear development by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. In 2018, previous US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the arrangement. Current US leader Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled a willingness to bring Washington back into the nuclear deal.


Since April 2021, Russia, the UK, Germany, China, the US and France have been negotiating with Iran in Vienna to restore the JCPOA to its original form. On November 10, 2022, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Raphael Grossi said that the next round of talks with representatives of Iran ended in the Austrian capital without any result.

 

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic world"

Photo: viennamission.mid.ru

Based on materials from TASS