Iran affirms no change in approach in nuclear negotiations

Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran, spokesman Nasser Kanaan said there had been no change in the approach to the issue after Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, was appointed as acting foreign minister, replacing Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who was killed in a helicopter crash carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage on May 19. Asked about the possibility that the talks could be postponed until after Iran's presidential election on June 28, Nasser Kanaan said the indirect exchange of messages between Iran and the US on lifting sanctions had continued without interruption. The spokesman stressed that the exchanges had focused only on areas related to lifting sanctions and nuclear issues and had never gone beyond this framework.

Iran and the P5+1 group (UK, France, US, Russia, China and Germany) signed the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in July 2015. Under it, Iran agreed to impose some restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for Western countries lifting sanctions on Tehran. However, the US withdrew from the deal in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, leading Tehran to abandon some of its nuclear commitments under the deal. Negotiations on restoring the JCPOA began in April 2021 in Vienna, Austria. Despite several rounds of negotiations, the parties have not made any significant breakthroughs since the last round of negotiations ended in August 2022.