Iran will not back down on its red lines in nuclear talks, Raisi says

Iran will not back down on its red lines in the nuclear talks with Western powers, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

“The government pursues nuclear negotiations in full accordance with the principles and framework set by the Supreme Leader, it has not and will not back down on any of these red lines,” the Iranian president was quoted as saying.

Negotiations to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers have now reached their climax, with the talks’ coordinator Enrique Mora of the European Union saying that it is time for a political decision in the next few days. 

“It is time, in the next few days, for political decisions to end the #ViennaTalks,” Mora said on Twitter.

Just to clarify. There are no longer “expert level talks”. Nor “formal meetings”. It is time, in the next few days, for political decisions to end the #ViennaTalks . The rest is noise. https://t.co/InuxzlBrCn

— Enrique Mora (@enriquemora_) March 7, 2022

Iran has sought to remove all sanctions and it wants guarantees from the United States that it will not abandon the deal once more.

Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, returned to Tehran on Monday for consultations over the nuclear deal’s conclusion.

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States, which started in April, have entered it final stage.