Iran open to direct talks with US if chance of deal emerges

Foreign minister says opportunity for dialogue will not be ignored as pressure to complete nuclear deal grows

Hossein Amirabdollahian said Iran 'will not ignore' a need for dialogue with the US if it is required during nuclear talks. AP

Iran will open direct talks with the United States if current nuclear talks in Vienna reached a point that they're needed, Iran's foreign minister said for the first time on Monday.

“If we reach a point in the negotiation process where a good agreement requires a dialogue with the United States, we will not ignore it,” Hossein Amirabdollahian said.

The US and Iran have been having indirect talks over the past year since President Biden took office to revive the 2015 nuclear accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

While US negotiations indicated they would be open to direct talks, with US special envoy to Iran Rob Malley and other officials saying the US would welcome the move, Iran had been largely closed off to the suggestion until Monday.

"We have long held the position that it would be more productive to engage with Iran directly, on both JCPOA negotiations and other issues," US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said.

"Given the pace of Iran's nuclear advances, we are almost out of time to reach an understanding on mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA."

Iran said the US must "change course" and return to the nuclear deal, prior to any direct talks.

Russian contractors work at the Bushehr nuclear reactor site in 2007. The plant opened four years later. Bloomberg

An Iranian technician at the International Atomic Energy Agency inspects the country's Isfahan plant in 2007. Tehran is no longer co-operating with the agency at nuclear sites across the country. EPA

Workers wait to begin constructing a second reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2019. AFP

A metal-encased rod with 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel is inserted into a reactor in Tehran in 2012. AFP

Fomer Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the country's Atomic Energy Organisation chief Ali Akbar Salehi speak at the Bushehr nuclear site in 2015. AFP

Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant has been restarted. EPA

Mehdi Abrichamtchi, chairman of the Peace and Security Committee at the National Council of Resistance of Iran, shows journalists the location of a secret nuclear site in Iran in 2013. AFP

Workers prepare to begin the construction of a second reactor at the Bushehr site. AFP

'Negotiating with the enemy is another thing'

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on major issues including the nuclear policy, said negotiating with the "enemy" does not mean surrendering.

"The bullying of the enemy should not be tolerated," he said, referring to the US.

But Mr Khamenei did leave open the possibility of speaking with the US in his speech, when he said: "Negotiating with the enemy some time, for example, is another thing – us interacting with them is another thing."

While progress has been slow in Vienna, both sides have been expressing cautious optimism over potential headway. On Monday, the US allowed South Korea to pay Iran's United Nations dues using frozen Iranian assets. The gesture was seen largely as a goodwill decision by the Biden administration. Iran has billions of dollars of assets frozen in South Korea due to sanctions.

The potential for the deal seems to have also increased with the departure of Richard Nephew, the deputy special envoy to Iran. Mr Nephew was one of the key architects of the Obama era sanctions regime on Iran. He had largely advocated for a harsher stance towards Iran at the Vienna talks.