We may resume talks with Iran before the end of 2023

A European official said on Tuesday that he does not expect that there will be any difficulty in persuading the European Union countries to maintain the sanctions related to ballistic missiles imposed on Iran, which are scheduled to expire next October.

The official, who spoke on condition that his name or position not be published, added that He sees a window of opportunity by the end In 2023 to try to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran to reduce escalation.

“We may have a small window of opportunity,” the official told reporters in Washington to try to resume conversations with them About returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement or at least reaching an agreement to reduce the escalation… before the end of the year.

He was referring to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The agreement, which Iran concluded with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, was aimed at restricting Tehran’s nuclear program and making it more difficult for it to obtain the fissile material needed to build a nuclear bomb in exchange for relief from economic sanctions imposed on it.

Sources told Reuters in June that European diplomats told Iran they planned to maintain EU ballistic missile sanctions due to expire in October under the nuclear deal, a move they said could anger Iran.

The sources told Reuters in June that there are three reasons for maintaining the sanctions, which are Russia’s use of Iranian drones in the Ukraine war, the possibility of Iran transferring ballistic missiles to Russia, as well as depriving Iran of the advantages provided by the nuclear agreement given its violation of the agreement, although this happened. After the United States withdrew from it.

Maintaining EU sanctions would reflect the West’s desire to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and deny it the means to achieve this, despite the collapse of the nuclear deal signed in 2015, from which former US President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

In response to a question about whether Britain, France and Germany, parties to the 2015 agreement, have persuaded the rest of the European Union members to maintain missile sanctions, the European official said: “It’s almost done. I don’t expect any difficulties.”

Iran’s relations with the West have deteriorated over the past year, prompting Washington and its allies to search for ways to calm tensions, and if that happens, it will be in return for imposing some restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.