US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley described new demands Iran made during the latest round of nuclear as “alarming.”
Malley added that Iran has made significant strides in enriching uranium as progress during indirect discussions restarted earlier in the year has largely stalled, Reuters reported.
The latest round of indirect talks were held last week in Doha, Qatar. They ended without any advances.
Malley slammed the Iranian officials present at the talks for coming up with new demands.
“They have, including in Doha, added demands that I think anyone looking at this would be viewed as having nothing to do with the nuclear deal, things that they’ve wanted in the past,” he told National Public Radio.
The demands included issues that had been off the table since the talks began.
“The discussion that really needs to take place right now is not so much between us and Iran, although we’re prepared to have that. It’s between Iran and itself,” Malley said. “They need to come to a conclusion about whether they are now prepared to come back into compliance with the deal.”
In a Twitter statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that after meeting with EU diplomat Josep Borrell, Iran would only agree to a deal “based on mutual understanding and interests.”
“We remain ready to negotiate a strong & durable agreement. US must decide if it wants a deal or insists on sticking to its unilateral demands,” he said.
The State Department said that another round of talks was currently not in the cards, with spokesperson Ned Price telling reporters that the additional items demanded by Iran had nothing to do with the 2015 nuclear agreement, and accusing Iran of not taking the discussions seriously.