Iran said Monday that the US position on Tehran’s nuclear programme “has moved towards a more realistic one” ahead of a second round of talks.
“A cautious assessment is that, from the discussions that have taken place in Muscat to date, at least what we have been told is that the US position on the Iranian nuclear issue has moved towards a more realistic one,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
He added that Iran’s “inalienable rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) were recognised”, referring to the “peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including enrichment”.
Tehran and Washington are due on Tuesday to hold a second round of negotiations — which began this month — after earlier talks collapsed during last year’s Iran-Israel war.
In June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war during which Israel and the United States struck Iranian nuclear facilities.
Ahead of the latest talks, Baqaei said Iran would press for the lifting of long-standing US sanctions that have deepened the country’s economic crisis.
“Time is of the essence for us. Our people are under the pressure of oppressive sanctions, and reason and logic demand that we lift these sanctions as soon as possible,” he said.
Key sticking points include Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which had reached 60 percent purity before the war and which Washington has repeatedly called on Tehran to reduce to zero.
