US and Iran seek to break impasse at talks on reviving nuclear deal

 US and Iran seek to break impasse at talks on reviving nuclear deal

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

Iran's chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani says the West "needs to pay a price" for its actions

Critical talks with Iran to prevent the collapse of a nuclear deal have resumed in Vienna after a five-month pause.

Officials are discussing the possible return of the US to the 2015 accord, which limited Iran's nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Iran has violated key commitments since then-President Donald Trump pulled out in 2018 and reinstated US sanctions.

Joe Biden is willing to lift them if Iran reverses the breaches. But Iran wants the US to make the first move.

Western diplomats have warned that time is running out to negotiate a solution because of the significant advances Iran has made in its uranium enrichment programme, which is a possible pathway to a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

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• BACKGROUND: Iran nuclear deal: What it all means

Diplomats from Iran and the five countries still party to what is known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK - met at a hotel in the Austrian capital on Monday afternoon, with US representatives participating indirectly.

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-59386825