New round of nuke talks likely to be held soon: Iranian lawmaker

TEHRAN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday that new round of talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal will probably be held soon, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported.

Given the European sides' efforts to resume the talks, Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, has hinted that the new round of the negotiations will probably be held in the coming days, Yaqoub Reza-Zadeh, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told ISNA.

Hoping for a good agreement in the potential new round of talks, Reza-Zadeh noted that Iran will tread carefully in its efforts to achieve an outcome acceptable to both the people and the parliament.

The venue could still be Vienna, but the definite one "will eventually be determined following an agreement among the sides," he said.

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 in May 2018 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 but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.

After a three-month pause, the talks resumed in late June in Qatar's capital Doha, but failed to settle the differences.