WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied on Friday that negotiations between Washington and Tehran to curtail Iran’s nuclear programme and free American detainees were close to completion.
In response to a question on indirect negotiations through Oman, Blinken stated that “some of the reports that we’ve seen regarding an agreement on nuclear matters or, for that matter, on detainees, are simply not accurate and not true.”
Iran announced on Monday that it was holding indirect talks with the US through the Sultanate of Oman, covering topics such nuclear energy, US sanctions, and detainees.
That spurred rumours that a settlement could be close between the two parties, who haven’t had direct talks in years.
Nasser Kanani, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said on Monday: “We welcome the efforts of Omani officials and we exchanged messages with the other party through this mediator” over the easing of US sanctions.
He continued, stating that “we have never stopped the diplomatic processes,” highlighting the fact that the discussions “were not secret.”
President Joe Biden has been trying to resurrect the 2015 agreement that gave Tehran much-needed reprieve from sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme, but the two sides have been unable to come to an agreement on it for the last two years.
In 2018, Donald Trump, the president before Biden, unilaterally withdrew from the agreement. Since then, Tehran has made steady advancements in the development of its nuclear business, albeit not — as feared — in the production of nuclear weapons.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, reaffirmed this week that his nation had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.
Deals with the United States might be achieved, according to Khameini, so long as they don’t alter “the nuclear industry’s current infrastructure.”
On Monday, Kanani stated that a prisoner swap might be reached “shortly” if Washington shows “the same level of seriousness” as Tehran.
Iranian authorities are holding at least three Iranian-Americans, including businessman Siamak Namazi, who was detained in October 2015 and given a 10-year jail term for espionage.
