President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Tuesday that Iran will not budge on its red lines in nuclear talks with major powers, after the European Union said the moment had come for Washington and Tehran to make the political decisions needed to reach an agreement.
Negotiations to resurrect the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear programme, have achieved its conclusion after eleven months of work.
After then-US President Donald Trump walked out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, Iran has requested the removal of all penalties and assurances from the US that it will not quit it again.
Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s senior negotiator, travelled to Tehran on Monday for talks.
“The government undertakes nuclear negotiations in full compliance with the Supreme Leader’s principles and framework,” Raisi added, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word in Tehran’s decision.
Raisi was cited by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying, “It has not and will not back down on any of these red lines.”
The European Union’s talks coordinator, Enrique Mora, said on Monday that the political decisions needed to properly complete the discussions must be made in the coming days.
The discussions were also hampered by a last-minute demand from Russia for a promise from the US that Russian trade, investment, and military-technical collaboration with Iran would not be hampered by sanctions imposed in response to Iran’s invasion of Ukraine, according to diplomats.
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