Iran could resume nuclear talks with other nations by mid-November: Foreign Ministry

The Islamic Republic of Iran foresees talks with world powers aimed at reviving its nuclear deal resuming by early November, Saeed Khatibzadeh, a spokesman for the country's foreign ministry said. Negotiations on the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) first hit a snag in June and since then, it has been a limbo. Interestingly, Israel recently touted a ‘Plan B’ to put a stop to Iran’s nuclear operations in case talks fail. 

On Monday, Khatibzadeh reckoned that he believes it would not take Iran the same amount of time that it took the Biden administration to join the Vienna talks. In an unlikely statement, he further said that he expects the talks to resume by the second week of November. It is imperative to note that although Biden had vowed to use diplomacy as a way to stop Iranian nuclear programmes, he recently warned of action in case the Nuclear deal continues to be in a deadlock. 

“The government of [President] Ebrahim Raisi has been in power for less than 55 days… I don’t think that the [return to talks] will take as much as 90 days,” the spokesperson told media reporters on Monday. 

'Rotten deal' 

The deal, signed in 2015 between Iran and other major world powers, including the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia, and Germany (P5+1), saw Washington lifting economic sanctions against Tehran and in return, the Islamic Republic agreed to bring down its uranium enrichment programme. However, Donald Trump withdrew the US from the pact in 2018, calling the structure of the deal "rotten". The Islamic Republic then retaliated by ending its compliance with the deal. As of now, six talks have been held in an attempt to revive the controversial nuclear pact, but despite US President Joe Biden vowing to resume the pact at the earliest, negotiations continue to be in limbo. 

In October, security officials from both Israel and America held ‘US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group’ talks on the course of action to be followed should Tehran refuse to revive the deal, Times of Israel reported sans revealing the details of the discussions. As per the publication, while Israel pressed forward for an alternate course of options, the US touted the imposition of more sanctions on Iran. It is worth mentioning that under Donald Trump, the White House slapped multiple sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which subsequently cripped the currency as well as its oil trade. Upon resuming office, Biden softened the stance by lifting some bans. 

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