News - Middle East: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says the Islamic Republic has always been in favor of a diplomatic path to settlement of differences and never distanced itself from the negotiating table.

He made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Iran's Al-Alam television network, whose text was published on Sunday.

Referring to his recent visit to Baghdad and his meetings with top Iraqi officials, including his counterpart, Fuad Hussein, Iran's top diplomat said the Iraqi foreign minister had returned from an earlier visit to Washington with a message for Iran.

“He carried the message that the American side is ready for an agreement” with Iran on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Amir-Abdollahian said.

“We have always welcomed the path of diplomacy and negotiation and never distanced ourselves from negotiation,” Iran's foreign minister emphasized.

He added that Iran is ready to work toward an agreement on the JCPOA and return of all signatories to their commitments under the deal within the framework of negotiations carried out in the Austrian capital city of Vienna and based on messages exchanged between Tehran and Washington through non-paper contacts.

Iran's top diplomat stressed that any such agreement must guarantee the interests of all parties, while respecting the Islamic Republic of Iran's red lines as well.

“If the American side acts realistically within the framework of the message it has sent and avoids repeating its previous hypocritical media remarks, we will not be far from an agreement,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

Iran's foreign minister added, “The problem, however, is that Americans always issue contradictory diplomatic and media messages. I mean, they send positive diplomatic messages while making different media remarks. We hope that [this time around] Americans would act realistically and avoid being hypocritical.”

Iran proved the peaceful nature of its nuclear program to the world by signing the JCPOA with six permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. However, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.

Negotiations between the parties to the deal kicked off in Vienna in April 2021, with the intention of bringing the US back into the deal and putting an end to its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

The discussions, however, have been at a standstill since August 2022 due to Washington’s insistence on not lifting all of the anti-Iranian sanctions and offering the necessary guarantees that it will not exit the agreement again.

Source: Press TV