US ‘dragging feet’ over nuclear deal
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday accused the United States of "dragging their feet" instead of making a decision to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
The 2015 agreement with major powers, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave Iran sanctions relief in return for restricting its nuclear programme.
It has been on life support since then-president Donald Trump withdrew the US from it in 2018, but on-off talks have been held since April 2021 in an effort to revive it.
"Today, it is the Americans who have to make a decision, but they are delaying and dragging their feet", Raisi told reporters in Tehran.
Raisi's comments follow weeks of demonstrations in Iran sparked by the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16, after her arrest for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.
The US and other Western parties to the deal have imposed fresh sanctions on Iran over its reaction to the Amini protests.
On Saturday, Iranian FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian accused the US of "looking to exert political and psychological pressure on Iran to obtain concessions in the negotiations".
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