US attended Doha without an approach of progress: Iranian FM ​

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US attended Qatar for the recent indirect nuclear talks without an approach based on initiative and progress, Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday affirming Tehran’s “positive” assessment of the negotiations.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke to his French counterpart Catherine Colonna over the phone, Iranian state media reported, discussing the two-day long EU-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran. 

“Our assessment of the recent talks in Doha is positive, but we have to see how the American side wants to take advantage of the diplomatic opportunity,” Amir-Abdollahian told Colonna. 

The Iranian foreign minister added that the American side “attended Doha without an approach based on initiative and progress.”

Iran and world powers, including the US, have held talks for over a year aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with Iran insisting that the US must lift its crippling sanctions, including those on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and to provide a guarantee that future US administrations will not be able to withdraw from the deal.

The accord offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for the curtailment of its nuclear program. Former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and imposed biting sanctions on Tehran.

US President Joe Biden is embarking upon the process of rolling back on his former's withdrawal, as he attempts to return to the deal. However, talks have yielded little result.

Iran described the recent talks in Doha as “positive,” but the US stated otherwise with the State Department saying the talks made “no progress.”

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani on Sunday said that the time and venue for the next phase of negotiations between Tehran and Washington were among the topics discussed in Doha and are being finalized.