World powers are reportedly likely to reconvene for negotiations aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal after US President Joe Biden’s trip to the region later this month, even after an unproductive round of talks earlier this week in Doha.
Contacts will likely continue through July, even though the UN nuclear watchdog warned that it will be unable to effectively verify whether Iran’s nuclear activity is within the parameters of the original accord, two European diplomats familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News on Friday.
Nonetheless, the sides will likely return to Doha after Biden’s July 13-16 trip to Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia, a third source told Bloomberg.
Negotiators gathered in Qatar at the beginning of the week after months of not convening at all due to differences between the US and Iran. The decision to come back to the negotiating table led some to believe progress was imminent. But the US said after several days of indirect talks that Iran did not come with serious proposals.
The State Department said Iran “raised issues wholly unrelated to the JCPOA and apparently is not ready to make a fundamental decision on whether it wants to revive the deal or bury it.” READ MORE
