Iran Press/America: US President Joe Biden's administration claimed that it pursued a diplomatic approach to Iran and an attempt to return to the JCPOA, but so far it took no steps to show its goodwill.
In prepared testimony for delivery to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, negotiator Robert Malley said that the prospects of a return to the Iran nuclear deal are "tenuous at best," but said the Biden administration still believes it is in the national security interest of the United States to try to salvage the 2015 agreement.
Malley said that “as I speak to you today, we do not have a deal with Iran,” and the administration will continue to reject what it considers unreasonable demands from the Tehran government.
Rob Malley's assessment at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing came the same day that the Biden administration unveiled new sanctions on Iran.
Most of the countries participating in the Vienna Talks want the negotiations to be concluded more quickly, but reaching a final agreement was subject to the US political decisions on a few remaining key issues.
Iran's international nuclear agreement or the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between the country and P5+1 countries (Russia, China, UK, Germany, France, and the US) in 2015, but the US scrapped it on May 18, 2018, re-imposing more sanctions on Iran.
A series of sanction-lifting talks then was initiated in Vienna - Vienna Talks - in Vienna, this time without the US, but between Iran and the P4+1 group.
The eighth round began the Vienna Talks began on December 27.
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