DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator on Thursday met the European Union’s Enrique Mora, who coordinates indirect talks between Tehran and Washington on reinstating Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iranian state media reported.
Both Tehran and Washington have played down the prospect of a breakthrough in the talks, which were suspended in March over several remaining thorny issues.
“Ali Bagheri Kani held a meeting with Mora at the Coburg Palace in Vienna,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
As Iran refuses to hold direct talks with the United States, Mora will shuttle between Bagheri and U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley, who said on Wednesday he was heading to Vienna but suggested he did not expect major progress.
In 2018, then U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the deal, calling it too soft on Iran, and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions, prompting Tehran’s clerical rulers to begin breaching its nuclear limits.
The 2015 deal seemed near revival in March after 11 months of indirect talks between Tehran and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration in Vienna.
But talks broke down over obstacles including Tehran’s demand that Washington provide guarantees that no U.S. president would abandon the deal as Trump did.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi;Editing by Alison Williams and Angus MacSwan)
