MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2023) Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Jassim Al Thani has conveyed a message on the renewal of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to Iran from the negotiating parties, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Sunday.
Earlier in the day, the two sides held negotiations in the Iranian capital of Tehran on bilateral and regional issues.
"The Qatari foreign minister brought messages from the parties to the talks on the renewal of the nuclear deal (JCPOA) and the lifting of sanctions against Iran," Amirabdollahian told a press conference with his Qatari counterpart, as quoted by the Tasnim news agency.
The Qatari foreign minister's previous trip to Tehran took place in July 2022, during which Doha welcomed Tehran's intentions to negotiate the JCPOA issue at the regional level, and noted the importance of returning all JCPOA parties to implement the agreement.
According to Iranian media reports, Qatar is among the countries through which messages between the US and Iran are exchanged.
The nuclear deal was sealed in 2015 by China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union. The US unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, to which the latter responded by gradually dropping its own obligations under the deal. The two started talks on JCPOA revival after the change of power in the White House.
Vienna has hosted several rounds of talks since April 2021. In December 2021, the JCPOA parties agreed on two drafts of a new deal, but no definitive agreement has been reached. Since then, the parties have had several rounds of talks to revive the deal.
At the end of December, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that the text of the revived deal is ready for signing, but Washington's "procrastination" is stopping the deal from being concluded.
