Sultan of Oman’s initiative still on table

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks after a meeting with his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi in New York in a post on X account where he wrote that “we discussed various issues.”

The top Iranian diplomat added, “The Sultan of Oman’s initiative to return all parties to JCPOA commitments is still on the table.”

He further wrote, “I need to clarify that we are on the right path of dignified diplomacy towards securing our national interests.”

The talks to remove sanctions on Iran and revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have been on pause since August last year, with Iran blaming a lack of political will on the part of the US President Joe Biden administration to undo the damage caused to the multilateral nuclear deal by the previous US administration.

Also in a meeting in New York on Wednesday, Iran’s foreign minister and the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell discussed ways to continue talks on the revival of the JCPOA, which have been stalled for over a year over lingering differences between Iran and the US.

According to the Press TV website, Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the UNSC-endorsed agreement in May 2018, imposing severe economic sanctions against Tehran while Iran was adhering to its commitments under the deal and even continued to do so for a year after the US withdrawal.

Tehran scaled back its commitments to the JCPOA in a series of pre-announced and clear steps after witnessing the other parties’ failure to secure its interest under the agreement.

Some observers see the exchange of five prisoners between Iran and the US on Monday as a possible gate to a broader agreement between the two countries. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said that Borrell expressed his satisfaction with the prisoner swap in the meeting.

The parties also discussed the course of cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency while also reviewing the latest developments in bilateral relations and consulted on regional and international developments, the statement said.

MNA/5890795