Iran says prospect for talks over nuclear deal ‘still exists’

Iran said it is open to fresh talks around its nuclear program with world powers that had been overshadowed by the deadly war in Gaza.

“The diplomatic environment to hold a new round of talks still exists,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said in a press conference in Tehran on Monday. “We have no problem with a new round of talks within the framework of our red lines.”

Last month, Tehran suggested efforts to revive a deal aimed at curbing its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief from nations such as the U.S. had been eclipsed by the Israel-Hamas war that started Oct. 7.

Iran and Washington have engaged in a flurry of indirect talks since April 2021 to restore the deal after former U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the agreement in 2018. The U.S. in October reached an informal understanding with Qatar to hold off distributing $6 billion in oil revenue that Iran was allowed to access under a prisoner exchange, as the Biden administration probed Tehran’s potential involvement in Hamas attack against Israel. Iran last month denied losing access to the funds.

“The dynamics of sanctions-lifting negotiations can see ebbs and flows as a result of developments in the region,” Kanaani was cited as saying by the semi-official Mehr News Agency on Dec. 11.