Nuclear talks resume in Vienna after 5-month hiatus

TEHRAN - A new round of talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers began in Vienna on Thursday after a 150-day hiatus, according to Iran's official news agency IRNA.

The Iranian negotiating team, headed by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani, held a meeting with the Russian delegation led by Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna and chief negotiator to the Vienna talks.

The two sides had "a frank, pragmatic and constructive exchange of views on ways and means of overcoming the last outstanding issues", Ulyanov tweeted after the meeting.

Bagheri Kani also met with Enrique Mora, the European Union chief coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, and Secretary General of the Austrian Foreign Ministry Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal respectively.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on reviving the JCPOA began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital of Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.