The official added that the talks, brokered by the European Union, “are still in place, which at this point means a regression.”
A US State Department spokesman confirmed, later Wednesday, that the talks had ended, and said: “While we are very grateful to the European Union for its efforts, we are disappointed that Iran has failed, once again, to respond positively to the EU’s initiative and therefore no progress has been made.” “.
“There were two intense days of indirect talks in Doha on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the nuclear deal),” Enrique Mora, a senior EU official, said on Wednesday, via his Twitter account.
“Unfortunately, the progress that the EU team had hoped for has not yet been made, and we will continue to work with greater urgency to re-establish a major agreement on non-proliferation and get regional stability back on track,” he added.
“We have made clear, in Doha, as in the past, our willingness to quickly conclude and implement an agreement on a mutual return to full compliance with the JCPOA based on nearly a year and a half of negotiations,” a State Department spokesperson said.
He added, “But Iran has raised issues in Doha, as in the past, that are completely unrelated to the JCPOA, and it seems that it is not ready to make a substantive decision on whether it wants to revive the agreement or bury it.”
On the other hand, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, via his Twitter account, that the talks were “intense”, and added: “Iran presented its ideas and proposals, and the other side presented its observations,” adding that Mora and the Iranian negotiator Ali Bagheri “will remain in contact.” Regarding the continuation of the talks and the next stage.
The talks in the Qatari capital came to try to revive the 2015 nuclear deal after months of deadlock after several rounds of talks in Vienna, Austria, which failed to achieve a breakthrough.
It has been revived after a visit by the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to Tehran last week.
The United States withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, and Iran has increasingly rejected restrictions on its nuclear program imposed by the deal.
US and European officials have repeatedly warned that the chances of returning to the nuclear deal diminish as Iran escalates its nuclear activities, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying in mid-June that it was an “open question whether we could.” There is much to suggest that we will not We will be able to, but we have been and are preparing equally for scenarios where there is a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA and for the scenario where there is no return to the JCPOA.”
More recently, the Joe Biden administration said it believes that a mutual return to the nuclear deal remains in the national security interest of the United States.
“The US view is frank, that we are determined to ensure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. “We believe a diplomatic agreement is the best way to do that, and we believe a mutual return to the JCPOA is in The interest of the United States and our partners, and there is an agreement available on the table for Iran, and it is up to it,” he said, adding that “Iran will decide whether it wants that or not.”
