Nuclear Iran
Nuclear IraniStock

Iran’s new Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said on Friday the country will return to nuclear negotiations “very soon,” but also accused the Biden administration of sending contradictory messages, The Associated Press reported.

Amir-Abdollahian said the Iranian government, which took power last month, believes that US President Joe Biden “keeps carrying close to his heart the thick file of the Trump sanctions against Iran, even while seemingly pursuing negotiations.”

In a media briefing on Iran’s new foreign policy, the Iranian Foreign Minister was very skeptical about the Biden administration’s real intentions, stressing that actions are more important than “empty but beautiful words,” and so is “the comportment” and “behavior” of the United States toward Iran.

He sharply criticized additional sanctions imposed by the Biden administration, as well as its refusal to give a green light for Iran to access millions of dollars of its money frozen in South Korea and Japanese banks to buy COVID-19 vaccines and medicine, and suddenly asking Britain to stop payment of 42-year-old debts.

“The United States of America must speak with a civilized tone and tongue with the people of Iran, not the language of threats, of pressure and sanctions,” said Amir-Abdollahian, who added that the past 42 years have “made clear the language of threats will not work against the great people of Iran.”

Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018.

The previous government, headed by former President Hassan Rouhani, had been holding indirect talks with the US on a return to the agreement.

The negotiations were adjourned on June 20, two days after Ebrahim Raisi won Iran's presidential election, and no date has been set for a resumption of dialogue.

Amir-Abdollahian said on Friday that the new government is reviewing the files of the nuclear negotiations in Vienna and will return to the talks because constructive negotiations can lead to “tangible, verifiable results.”

He added that Iran’s expectations are that all parties return to the Vienna negotiations and then fulfill their commitments under the 2015 agreement in a verifiable way.

A senior US official said on Thursday that the window is still open to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal but won't be forever.

"We're still interested. We still want to come back to the table," the senior State Department official said in a telephone briefing, as quoted by Reuters. "The window of opportunity is open. It won't be open forever if Iran takes a different course."

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)