DOHA
\nIran said it was \u201cserious\u201d about nuclear talks with the United States but that negotiations could end after just two days on Wednesday, as they try to revive a landmark deal.
\nThe indirect negotiations in Qatar are an attempt to reboot long-running European Union-mediated talks on a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.
\nIran\u2019s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri is set to meet the talks\u2019 coordinator, EU deputy secretary-general Enrique Mora, on the evening of day two in Qatar.
\n\u201cThe two-day talks are not over yet and this evening another meeting will be held between\u201d Bagheri and Mora, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in Tehran.
\n\u201cThe talks in Doha, which are taking place in a professional and serious atmosphere, were scheduled for two days from the beginning,\u201d Kanani said.
\nNo time-limit had previously been announced on the talks, which are taking place in a Doha hotel with a US delegation headed by special envoy Robert Malley.
\nAn EU source said that the discussions, which come two weeks before US President Joe Biden makes his first official visit to the region, were supposed to last several days. The parties have \u201cexchanged views and proposals on the remaining issues\u201d, Kanani said.
\nThe US State Department meanwhile said that the indirect consultations were ongoing in Doha, but said it had nothing immediately to say about the talks.
\nA State Department spokesperson said the US was prepared to return to the deal, but reiterated calls for Tehran \u201cto drop their additional demands that go beyond\u201d the scope of the pact.
\nDifferences between Tehran and Washington have notably included Iran\u2019s demand that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be removed from a US terror list.
\n\u2018Trump method\u2019
\nThe arch-rivals are meeting indirectly \u2014 passing messages from different areas of the same hotel \u2014 to try to break an impasse in attempts to restart the 2015 agreement.
\nThe deal, which lifted sanctions in return for Iran curbing its nuclear programme, was abandoned unilaterally by former US president Donald Trump in 2018. The international talks on reviving the deal had been taking place since April 2021 in Vienna, before the process stalled last March.
\nIranian officials earlier said they were hoping for progress in Qatar \u2014 but warned the Americans to abandon the \u201cTrump method\u201d of negotiating.
\n\u201cWe hope that, God willing, we can reach a positive and acceptable agreement if the United States abandons the Trump method,\u201d Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi said.
\nHe described the \u201cTrump method\u201d as \u201cnon-compliance with international law and past agreements and disregard for the legal rights of the Iranian people\u201d.
\nForeign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also said Iran was open to a deal in Doha, but that it wouldn\u2019t cross its \u201cred lines\u201d.
\n\u201cWe are serious\u201d in our desire to finalise an agreement, he said, stressing that his country would not retreat from the \u201cred lines\u201d it has drawn.
\n\u201cIf the American side has serious intentions and is realistic, an agreement is available at this stage and in this round of negotiations,\u201d he said, quoted by IRNA state news agency.
\nIRNA has previously described the \u201cred lines\u201d as lifting all sanctions as related to the nuclear agreement, creating a mechanism to verify they have been lifted, and making sure the US does not withdraw from the deal.
\nThe deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018, when Trump unilaterally withdrew and began reimposing harsh economic sanctions on America\u2019s arch-enemy.
\nSoaring oil prices and the lack of spare capacity make this an opportunity for Tehran to push for the lifting of sanctions on Iranian crude, said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran programme at the Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOHA Iran said it was \u201cserious\u201d about nuclear talks with the United States but that negotiations could end after just two days on Wednesday, as they try to revive a landmark deal. The indirect negotiations in Qatar are an attempt to reboot long-running European Union-mediated talks on a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-269175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n