Iran serious about JCPOA return if other parties ready: FM

Tehran, Sep 25 (IANS) Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York, Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

During the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian said on Sunday that Tehran is serious about returning to a 2015 nuclear deal should the other parties be ready, adding the exchange of indirect messages with the US continues.

He praised the UN Chief for the good consultations Guterres has always had with Iran regarding the revival of the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Xinhua news agency reported.

Turning to the cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Amir-Abdollahian noted that affairs proceed in the right direction whenever the agency acts within the technical framework.

He stressed that producing nuclear weapons has no place in Iran's defence doctrine.

For his part, Guterres appreciated Iran's diplomatic initiatives in helping resolve problems, remove obstacles and develop relations among countries.

Iran and the US conducted a prisoner swap on Monday, with each side releasing five detainees under a Qatar-brokered agreement.

Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. 

The US, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the revival of the JCPOA began in April 2021 in Vienna, Austria. Despite several rounds of talks, no significant breakthrough has been achieved since the end of the last round in August 2022.