Iran nuclear talks to resume in Vienna on Tuesday

BERLIN (AP) — Talks to revive Iran’s tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers are resuming on Tuesday after breaking off for a bit over a week for diplomats to return home for consultations.

The European Union, which chairs the talks in Vienna, announced the resumption on Monday.

The United States pulled out of the Vienna accord in 2018 under then President Donald Trump and reimposed heavy sanctions on Iran. Tehran has responded by increasing the purity and amounts of uranium it enriches and stockpiles, in breach of the accord.

U.S. President Joe Biden has signaled that he wants to rejoin the deal. Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China are still parties to the accord with Iran and have been trying to salvage it.

“Negotiations seem to be at the final stage which requires determination and energetic efforts from all participants to get to the destination point,” Russia’s delegate to the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said on Twitter.

Diplomats from the three European countries said when talks paused after a month on Jan. 28 that the negotiations were reaching the final stage, and that required political decisions.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed several sanctions waivers related to Iran’s civilian nuclear activities. The move reverses the Trump administration’s decision to rescind them.

Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday welcomed the sanctions relief but called it insufficient.

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