Iranian Daily: New round of nuclear talks ‘a trap’

Kayhan newspaper in an article on Monday raised questions over reports that President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration is going to pick up where the negotiating parties left off in the Vienna talks.

The talks have been stalled since March over what Iran calls “the US’s excessive demands”.

Following a visit by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell to Tehran to revive talks on a 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCOPA), reports surfaced in the media speculating about the date and venue of the forthcoming negotiations.

The pirinciplist daily highlighted Iran never abandoned the talks, so announcing the resumption of talks from the Iranian side would send a wrong message to the US especially after an anti-Iran resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors.

The daily also wrote resumption of talks is in contradiction to presidential campaign promises by Raisi that his administration would not hinge the nation’s livelihood on the talks with the West aimed at lifting the sanctions.

Kayhan wrote that the talks are ‘a trap’ set by the US to convey the idea that domestic problems in Iran cannot be resolved without reviving the nuclear deal.