US should lift sanctions to prove it wants talks, says Iran

Tehran: Iran's president said Monday the United States should lift the sanctions on his country to prove it is serious about restarting stalled nuclear talks in Vienna.

In an interview with state TV, Ebrahim Raisi said Iran is after goal-oriented talks with the West and said Iran never left the negotiation table.

Lifting sanctions is an indication of seriousness of the other party, he said.

Talks between Iran and European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, alongside Russia and China, have been stalled since June. Raisi's administration, which took office in August, has not fixed a date for resuming talks. Iran has been resisting calls for a quick resumption of the talks in Vienna. Instead, Iran wants to meet separately with the other parties to the deal in Brussels before returning to the table in Vienna. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the chief of the UN's atomic watchdog in Washington on Monday, the State Department said the Biden administration did not believe a preliminary meeting in Brussels was needed. Blinken and others have warned that the window for diplomacy

is closing.