US: Continuation of Vienna talks depends on Iran's decision

A US State Department spokesman says his country is not willing to set a deadline for resuming the Vienna talks and that a decision on the matter should be made in Tehran. The Russian representative also believes that the talks are unlikely to start for another ten days.

Ned Price, spokesman for the US State Department, announced the country's readiness to begin the seventh round of indirect nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, July 2, US time, he emphasized the US's unwillingness to announce a deadline for resuming the Vienna talks, saying, "Only Tehran can decide when to resume the talks."

The negotiations to revive the JCPOA, which began three months ago following the Biden administration’s inauguration, have reached agreements in the past six rounds, and the final outcome is linked to political decisions in Tehran and Washington. In the latest report from the Iranian Foreign Ministry to the parliament on the JCPOA negotiations, Mohammad Javad Zarif implicitly stated that the government’s emphasis on maximum demands is one of the obstacles to reaching an agreement in Vienna.

"Maximum tendencies only lead to erosive and endless negotiations," he wrote in the report.

In a letter attached to the Foreign Ministry report, Zarif said that reaching an agreement on the nuclear dispute “requires courage, sacrifice, and a willingness to sacrifice reputation.”

Last Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in a speech about the Vienna talks and the lifting of sanctions, said: "The issue of sanctions... is in our hands, of course, some of it is in the hands of others, but the principle is ours. We can decide to end it this week, and it could continue for months, which is another matter."

The US State Department spokesperson continued his conversation with reporters, stating that Robert Malley, the US special representative for Iran, would be ready to return to Vienna immediately after setting a date for the continuation of the talks. He added: "The US government continues to believe that diplomacy is the most effective way to achieve the goals we are pursuing (in relation to Iran)."

At the same time, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, has said that the seventh round of Vienna talks will not begin for at least 10 days.

In response to a question about when the Vienna talks would resume, he said: "To this day, no one, including the Iranians, has an answer to this question."

Ulyanov described Iran's delay as understandable, as the country had just held presidential elections and it would take time to form a new team for negotiations.

Stressing the need to speed up the resumption of negotiations, he said that he did not think “the talks would start sooner than in 10 days.”

Source: DW