DOHA, June 29(ABC): Chief negotiators from the United States and Iran began indirect talks in Qatar on Tuesday, bidding to remove obstacles that have stalled attempts to revive a landmark nuclear deal.
The indirect negotiations headed by US special envoy Robert Malley and Iran s Ali Bagheri come after more than a year of European Union-mediated talks in Vienna on a return to the 2015 agreement between Tehran and world powers.
The Doha talks also come just two weeks before US President Joe Biden s first visit to the region since taking office, when efforts to curb Iran s nuclear ambitions will be high on the agenda.
“Indirect messages have been exchanged between the parties involved,” a diplomat in the region told AFP.
Iran s state news agency IRNA published a photo of Bagheri meeting with the European Union s coordinator for the talks, Enrique Mora.
EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said earlier that the Doha discussions were the start of a process to “unblock” the long-running Vienna negotiations that have stalled since March.
“We managed to unblock the process and we are going to move forward, and as a first step at this stage we have these proximity talks,” he said in Brussels.
The 2015 deal gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon — something it has always denied wanting to do.
The deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018, when then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it and began reimposing harsh economic sanctions on America s arch-enemy.
– Separate rooms –
The delegations are in separate rooms and communicating via intermediaries. The US and Iran do not have diplomatic relations.
US President Joe Biden s administration has sought to return to the agreement, saying it would be the best path ahead with the Islamic republic, although it has voiced growing pessimism in recent weeks.
Malley earlier met Qatar s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani to discuss “joint diplomatic efforts to address issues with Iran”, the US embassy in Doha tweeted.
Bagheri meanwhile met Qatar s foreign ministry secretary-general, Ahmad bin Hassen al-Hammadi, Qatar s foreign ministry said.
Sheikh Mohammed also discussed the Iran talks with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna in a phone call on Tuesday, the official Qatar News Agency said.
Qatar hopes the indirect talks will culminate in “positive results that contribute to the revival of the nuclear deal signed in 2015”, the foreign ministry said.