TEHRAN, Iran, August 23. The Vienna negotiation for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal still continues until there is agreement on all details, said the Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani, Trend reports citing IRNA.
Iran has not received any response to the European suggestions from the other side, specifically, the US, he pointed out.
Speaking in his weekly press conference Kanani noted that Iran has not received the details of the next rounds of talks.
"We would be able to speak about the fruitfulness of this round of talks whenever the European side announces that they have received the Americans' response, but this has not occurred yet," he said.
The official has pointed out that Iran had relatively good progress, but until a consensus is achieved on all issues, it could not be stated that negotiations have reached an agreement.
Iran participated in several rounds of talks and answered the Europeans' suggestions, but the US is still hesitating to respond to the draft on the resumption of implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he said adding the US is hesitating on response.
"If Washington shows political will and seriousness in practice, we can move forward to reach the next stage," he stressed.
He underlined that Iran has always pursued agreement and the negotiating team attended the negotiations to secure national interest and Iran would not leave its priority due to eroding negotiation.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions on Iran in November of the same year.
To preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal started in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories that have not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA on Sept.5.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped into the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. On Jan.2020, Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA.
As reported, in late 2020, the Iranian parliament has decided to implement a strategic plan to tackle the sanctions, citing the non-implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and six countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran. According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, as of February 23, Iran suspended the implementation of additional steps and an additional protocol provided for in the nuclear deal.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals.