Asked by reporters about the hiatus in the JCPOA talks on Saturday, Saeed Khatibzadeh rejected the false comments and fabrications by the diplomats of the three European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal (the UK, France and Germany) about the timetable of the return of delegations during the latest round of talks.
“Contrary to the Western side’s claim about Iran’s call for a hiatus in negotiations, these three countries and other members of the P4+1 are fully aware that the timetable was fixed following a consensus among all parties and in consideration of the holidays of the European sides on the occasion of Christmas and the New Year,” he said, the Foreign Ministry’s website reported.
Khatibzadeh noted that it is not the first time the Western parties resort to distortion of truth and spreading misinformation.
He also stressed that the European troika may have sought, through this unfounded claim, to make up for their request for premature return to their capitals during the previous round of talks.
The spokesman finally noted that the European countries should show seriousness and determination to advance the talks instead of insisting on a threadbare and futile blame game.
Iran and the five remaining parties to the JCPOA -- Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China -- resumed talks in Vienna on November 29 after a five-month hiatus, marking the first round of negotiations under President Ebrahim Raeisi’s administration and the seventh overall.
During the seventh round of the Vienna talks, Iran presented two draft texts which address, separately, the removal of US sanctions and Iran’s return to its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA. Tehran also said it was preparing a third draft text on the verification of the sanctions removal.
Iran and the P4+1 group of countries resumed the talks in the Austrian capital on December 9 after being paused on December 3, when the participants returned to their capitals for additional consultations on the two draft proposals that Tehran had put forward.