Iran, world powers ready to welcome back US to nuclear deal!

BRUSSELS (AP) — Iran and the major powers in the agreement to keep Tehran from developing nuclear weapons said Friday they are ready to welcome the return of the United States.

The chair of the group including the European Union, China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain an Iran said that the participants “emphasized their commitment to preserve the JCPOA and discussed modalities to ensure the return to its full and effective implementation,” according to a statement after their virtual meeting, referring to the acronym for the accord — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The group said they would resume further talks next week in Vienna, “in order to clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures.”

The statement also said that the group’s coordinator “will also intensify separate contacts in Vienna” with all participants of the nuclear agreement and the United States.

In Tehran, state television quoted Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s nuclear negotiator in the Friday virtual meeting, as saying in the meeting that any “return by the U.S. to the nuclear deal does not require any negotiation and the path is quite clear.”

“The U.S. can return to the deal and stop breaching the law in the same way it withdrew from the deal and imposed illegal sanctions on Iran,” Araghchi was quoted as as saying.