Iran’s Foreign Ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh said Tuesday that negotiations to revive the nuclear deal that have been on hold since June 20th are expected to resume sometime in the next few weeks.
“Every meeting requires prior coordination and the preparation of an agenda. As previously emphasized, the Vienna talks will resume soon and over the next few weeks,” Khatibzadeh said, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA.
Also on Tuesday, President Biden addressed the UN General Assembly and said the US was working to resume dialogue with Iran. “We are working with the P5+1 to engage Iran diplomatically and seek a return to the JCPOA,” Biden said.
P5+1 refers to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, China, Russia, France, and the UK — plus Germany. These states signed the JCPOA with Iran back in 2015. But since the US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, the JCPOA signatories are technically the P4+1.
Biden also said the US is ready to “full compliance if Iran does the same.” But the US and Iran have been at odds over what full US compliance with the JCPOA means. Iran believes it should mean a lifting of all US sanctions implemented since the US withdrew from the deal, but the Biden administration has refused to lift all Trump-era sanctions and has even implemented more.