By Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler and Nicole Gaouette, CNN
Updated 6:48 PM ET, Thu February 18, 2021
Washington (CNN) In an unexpected move the Biden administration said Thursday that the US is willing to sit down for talks with Tehran and other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal, before either side has taken any tangible action to salvage or return to compliance with the agreement.
“The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement Thursday. The P5+1 refers to the permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — and Germany.
A senior State Department official said they saw move toward discussions as “the right next step.”
It is unclear if the Iranians would accept such an overture, a State Department official told reporters Thursday, nor has a meeting been scheduled.
The political director of the European External Action Service on Thursday said he was “ready to invite (the Iran nuclear deal participants and the US) to an informal meeting to discuss the way forward” on the deal.
Read further and listen to Iran Foreign Minister’s interview
Categories: The Muslim Times
The Biden administration said it would be willing to meet with Iran to discuss a “diplomatic way forward” in efforts to return to the nuclear deal that President Donald Trump quit in 2018, a first step toward easing tensions that rose steadily over the past four years.
The offer is a politically risky effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to move past the standoff after a slew of U.S. sanctions cratered Iran’s economy and infuriated other world leaders, who argued that the 2015 accord and the inspections regime it created had reined in Tehran’s nuclear program.
“The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement Thursday. The P5+1 refers to the participants in the nuclear deal with Iran: China, Russia, France, the U.K., the U.S and Germany.
The offer to hold talks was aimed at restoring a diplomatic pathway with Iran, which has been gradually abandoning its commitment to the nuclear deal in response to the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign. U.S. and European officials are alarmed by Iran’s decision to stop letting the International Atomic Energy Agency conduct the snap inspections Tehran voluntarily agreed to by suspending the so-called Additional Protocol from Feb. 23.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-18/biden-team-revokes-trump-s-iran-snapback-at-un-security-council?srnd=premium&sref=eGA8az79
Yes, let’s hope talks will lead to peace. What we have now is economic warfare…