US' Malley calls meeting with EU, E3 officials 'productive'

Robert Malley announced the end of his official meetings with EU officials as well as the European Troika (Britain, France and Germany) in Paris in his Twitter account on late Friday.

"Just finished a series of productive meetings in Paris with our EU and E3 colleagues about the future of JCPOA talks and the importance of a quick return to mutual compliance," he wrote.

The US State Department announced on Wednesday morning (Tehran time) that Robert Malley, the US Special Representative for Iran's Affairs, would travel to Moscow and Paris with a small delegation to discuss with Russian and French officials on Iran's nuclear program and the need to reach an agreement on a bilateral return to the JCPOA.

Iran has held six rounds of talks with JCPOA participants known as the P4+1 with the aim of salvaging the JCPOA in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Tehran has insisted that it would resume full compliance with the deal after the full removal of the sanctions that the previous US administration under Trump illegally imposed on Tehran after its unilateral and illegitimate withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018.

It has already stressed that it would leave the Vienna talks if they take too long and if its legitimate demands as per the JCPOA are not met. The other parties, especially the Europeans seem to be killing time while the new US administration is still sticking to the Trump-era sanctions.

The current US administration has not yet fulfilled the promises Joe Biden made during his presidential elections campaigns to undo Trump's actions and return to the deal. In the meantime, Tehran has also stressed that the Biden administration's return to the agreement without lifting the sanctions is not important at all.

The seventh round of Vienna talks was expected to begin in late August after the new government takes office in Iran.

Meanwhile, the sixth round of talks ended on June 20 and this will mean a two-month hiatus.

ZZ/5301558