The U.S. said Tuesday it is studying Iran’s response to a final European Union-brokered proposal on reviving the 2015 international accord to constrain Tehran’s nuclear development program.
The State Department said it received the Iran document from the EU and would share a U.S. response with its European allies.
The official IRNA news agency in Tehran reported Tuesday that Iranian negotiators had submitted their reply to the EU and suggested they still wouldn’t accept the EU proposal, despite warnings there would be no more negotiations.
“The differences are on three issues, in which the United States has expressed its verbal flexibility in two cases, but it should be included in the text,” the IRNA report said. “The third issue is related to guaranteeing the continuation of [the deal], which depends on the realism of the United States.”
“Iran has submitted a written response to the draft text of a Vienna agreement and has announced that an agreement will be concluded if the United States reacts with realism and flexibility,” the agency reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quoted earlier by IRNA as saying that “the American side has verbally accepted the two demands” made by Tehran.
A spokesman for the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, confirmed that Tehran had submitted its response and said it was being studied.
“We are studying it and are consulting with the other JCPOA participants and the U.S. on the way ahead,” the spokesperson said, referring to the formal title of the 2015 nuclear pact.
He did not give any details on what the response contained.
The possibility of reviving the deal, which could lead to the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil output, has helped trigger a fall in global oil prices.
The landmark agreement has been on hold since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018, and reimposed crippling economic sanctions against Iran.
The main countries negotiating with Iran have been waiting for Tehran’s response to the final draft that was submitted by Borrell last week.
IRNA quoted an unidentified Iranian diplomat as saying that “the European Union’s proposals were acceptable so long as they provide assurances to Iran on various points related to sanctions and safeguards” as well as pending issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia resumed talks with Iran on the accord earlier in August after a months-long hiatus. The United States has been participating indirectly.
Nike Ching contributed to this report. The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse provided some of the information in this report.
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