'US should unfreeze Iranian assets to show goodwill in nuke talks'

TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that he has demanded the US to show the "true will" of reaching an agreement with Tehran by liberating part of the country'sassets frozen abroad under American sanctions.

"If (US President Joe) Biden's intentions are serious, he must first issue a serious signal, and one of those signs is to release at least $10 billion of our own money," Xinhua news agency quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying in an interview on Iran's IRIB state TV.

The Foreign Minister said he recently sent that request during the UN General Assembly in September when .S officials "tried to contact" him through different mediators.

Iran will "soon" return to negotiations over the 2015 nuclear agreement, but the US "must show their true intention and will", he added.

Concerning Western governments hastening Iran to resume talks quickly, the minister said Iran's current administration, which assumed office in late August, needed a "reasonable amount of time" to prepare its negotiating team and strategy.

The precise composition of Iran's new negotiating team is currently being finalised, and the overall approach of the current administration to the nuclear negotiations is nearly completed, he said.

On September 30, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell voiced confidence at a news conference in Qatar's capital Doha, that talks to reactivate the 2015 nuclear agreement will resume "within an acceptable period of time".

In the interview, Amir Abdollahian added if Iran's Western counterparts in the negotiation do not "show their true intention and will", the current Iranian administration will not "be idled at such a negotiating table".

Regarding the location and the format of negotiations, the Foreign Minister said he has no problem in continuing the talks in Austria's capital Vienna on the same format that was used in the previous six rounds, between April 6 and June 20.

Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, said last week that the US and its allies were increasingly considering a "plan B" to "stop Iran's nuclear program".

On this matter, the Iranian Minister said that Western countries should make more efforts to the Iranian side that it will actually benefit from the nuclear agreement instead of talking about a "plan B," which is "some kind of a threat".

Amir Abdollahian also pointed out that Iran has made progress in its nuclear technology, which can make a contribution in the field of "peaceful nuclear science" for the world. (IANS)

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