US State Department spokesman Ned Price speaks to reporters during a news briefing at the State Department in Washington, US, on February 17, 2021.
The Biden administration has said it's ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
It’s also reversed the Trump administration’s determination that all UN sanctions against Iran had been restored and eased stringent restrictions on the domestic US travel of Iranian diplomats posted to the United Nations on Thursday.
The State Department said the US would accept an invitation from the European Union to attend a meeting of the participants in the original agreement.
The US has not participated in a meeting of those participants since former president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.
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Meeting of world leaders
“The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the P5+1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Such an invitation has not yet been issued but one is expected shortly, following discussions earlier on Thursday between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British, French and German counterparts.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the administration notified the Security Council that it had withdrawn Trump's September 2020 invocation of the so-called “snapback” mechanism under which it maintained that all UN sanctions against Iran had been re-imposed.
That determination had been vigorously disputed by nearly all other UN members and had left the US isolated at the world body.
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Eased travel restrictions
In another move, officials said the administration has eased extremely strict limits on the travel of Iranian diplomats accredited to the United Nations.
The Trump administration had imposed the severe restrictions, which essentially confined them to their UN mission and the UN headquarters building in New York.
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Limiting IAEA access
Earlier on Thursday, Blinken and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France urged Iran to allow continued United Nations nuclear inspections and stop nuclear activities that have no credible civilian use.
They warned that Iran’s actions could threaten delicate efforts to bring the US back into the 2015 deal and end sanctions damaging Iran’s economy.
Iran has said it will stop part of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear facilities next week if the West doesn’t implement its own commitments under the 2015 deal. The accord has been unraveling since Trump pulled the US out of the agreement.
Blinken reiterated that “if Iran comes back into strict compliance with its commitments ... the United States will do the same,” according to a joint statement after Thursday’s meeting that reflected closer trans-Atlantic positions on Iran since President Joe Biden took office.
The diplomats noted “the dangerous nature of a decision to limit IAEA access, and urge Iran to consider the consequences of such grave action, particularly at this time of renewed diplomatic opportunity.”
READ MORE: Iran will expel UN nuclear inspectors unless sanctions are lifted
Tehran expresses hope
The 2015 accord is aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Tehran denies it is seeking such an arsenal.
“We are the ones who have kept this agreement alive in recent years, and now it’s about supporting the United States in taking the road back into the agreement,” Maas told reporters in Paris.
“The measures that have been taken in Tehran and may be taken in the coming days are anything but helpful. They endanger the Americans’ path back into this agreement. The more pressure that is exerted, the more politically difficult it will be to find a solution,” he said.
In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani expressed hope Thursday that the Biden administration will rejoin the accord and lift the US sanctions that Washington re-imposed under Trump, according to state television.
Tehran has been using its violations of the nuclear deal to put pressure on the remaining signatories – France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China – to provide more incentives to Iran to offset the crippling sanctions.
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