MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/: Americans handed over messages to Iranian representatives on US President Joe Biden’s intentions of implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program during the UN General Assembly in New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said at a press conference following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday.
"You know, when I was in New York then, I received messages via intermediaries from the Americans. The essence of these messages was that the Americans tried to emphasize that the esteemed Mr. Biden had serious intentions to implement the JCPOA as well as to pay special attention to the implementation of the rights and interests of Iranian people within the framework of these achieved agreements," the Iranian top diplomat said.
At the same time, according to him, it is necessary to make sure how serious the US’ intentions actually are, for example, on the issue of "whether they are ready to unblock $10 bln of Iran’s assets in foreign banks."
The foreign minister also noted that Tehran is tallying up the results with regards to the details of the nuclear deal and is working on resuming the Vienna talks. "In the near future, we will determine the dates of returning to the talks," the Iranian top diplomat stressed.
The face-to-face talks between Iran and the international "group of five" (Russia, the UK, Germany, China, and France) have been underway in Vienna since April in order to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal in its initial form which the US left in 2018. Experts in three working groups are hammering out the text of an agreement on resuming the implementation of the JCPOA through lifting Washington’s sanctions against Iran, implementing nuclear obligations by Tehran from which it significantly deviates and returning the US to the deal.
The representatives of the JCPOA member states are also holding separate consultations without Iranian participation with the US delegation which now considers the possibility of returning to the deal over Israel’s objections. There haven’t yet been any direct talks between the American and Iranian representatives in Vienna.
