Iran does not ‘waste time,’ won’t accept ‘unconstructive’ US behavior in nuclear negotiations, foreign minister says

Tehran does not tolerate “unconstructive” actions from the US in regard to its nuclear talks, nor does it “waste time,” Iran’s foreign minister said, blasting President Joe Biden’s administration’s handling of the negotiations.

Speaking on Tuesday with the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian bashed Washington’s behavior in relation to Iran and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as having so far been “unconstructive.” The foreign minister even claimed that Biden has “in practice” pursued a similar course in policy to his predecessor Donald Trump.

Amir-Abdollahian remained firm, stating that Americans are mistaken if they “think they are concluding by putting pressure on Iran,” vowing that the JCPOA “must have tangible results” for Tehran. In return, the country will stop its “compensatory actions.”

Borrell, who met with Iran on the sidelines of the United Nations event, stressed the importance of the nuclear talks, not only for the country, but for the wider region and world.

Slamming the former republican president, the foreign policy chief expressed that Brussels “has always been critical of Trump's destructive policies and actions in withdrawing” from the accord. Borrell, however, voiced that “the new US administration has created a new chapter in maintaining and reviving the deal.”

The remarks come after Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, announced on Tuesday that talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal will resume “in the next few weeks.” Negotiations plateaued earlier this year after going through five rounds of discussions.

Iran has been incessant that as a prerequisite for the talks to proceed, the US must drop all of its sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic.

The White House, however, has been hesitant to drop the embargoes imposed by Trump after he unilaterally pulled America out of the JCPOA in 2018. Washington is calling on Iran to stop enriching uranium beyond the limits outlined in the accord, which Tehran began doing in response to the financial penalties.

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