Iran is planning to hold talks with the U.S. over the nuclear deal it signed with the international community in 2015, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday.
Araghchi said that Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif is scheduled to take part in a UN meeting in New York on July 17 and talks on the nuclear deal are planned there.
“Also with the Americans, also bilateral,” Araghchi added.
U.S. President Donald Trump has described the agreement between Iran and the five UN veto powers plus Germany (the 5+1 powers), which lifted sanctions in return for restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear programme, as a bad deal.
For Tehran, the accord is an international one that has been verified by both the U.S. and the UN, so Trump is not able to challenge it unilaterally.
Zarif’s trip to New York will be the first by an Iranian official onto US soil since Trump was inaugurated as president.
Araghchi said that he and his nuclear team would travel to Vienna after the New York meeting for the next round of 5+1 talks at the deputy foreign minister level on July 21, which marks the second anniversary of the agreement.
“Also there the antagonistic stance of the US towards the nuclear deal will be right at the top of the agenda,” Araghchi said.
The nuclear deal was intended to do away with the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon.
In spite of the lifting of sanctions on Tehran in return for international monitoring of its nuclear programme, the US maintains some sanctions on Iran.
(Source: dpa/NAN)