Iran has agreed to resume nuclear talks in Vienna with the P4+1 nations – China, Russia, France, the UK plus Germany — on November 29, according to Amichai Stein, a Hebrew-language journalist for Israel’s KAN News public broadcaster.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani confirmed the announcement.
There is no coincidence about the date, Stein pointed out: the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors is scheduled to meet from November 22-26.
The date of November 29 is also be significant for its reflection of the establishment of the State of Israel, and the conflict that remains to this day with the Palestinian Authority and its allies.
November 29 is the anniversary of the date the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution adopting the plan for the partition of British Mandate Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority later succeeded in hijacking the momentous anniversary in 1978 by convincing the United Nations Secretary-General at the time, Ban Ki-moon, to declare the date an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The announcement of impending JCPOA talks will make it difficult to pass a resolution against Iran, as Israel was hoping would happen.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in a statement posted to Twitter that negotiations on the revival of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal should be based on “mutual interests and rights,” the Iranian semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported on its English-language news site.
Bagheri wrote in a tweet that the start of negotiations is “aimed at lifting illegal and inhumane sanctions,” the news outlet reported on its Persian-language website.
On Friday, the US Treasury Department imposed a fresh round of sanctions on four individuals and two entities allegedly involved in promoting the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force.
A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Minister said Monday that if the US attends the talks “with the right plan and abandons the policy of sanctions, an agreement on Washington’s return to the JCPOA and the termination of sanctions will be made immediately.
“Everybody can rest assured that an agreement on how the US would rejoin the JCPOA and on the effective removal of sanctions, all at once, could be made immediately if the US comes to Vienna with a proper executive plan, abandons its previous policy of maintaining part of sanctions imposed by Trump, and does not waste the energy and time of others,” Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters at a news conference.
“We are waiting for action from Washington,” he added.