Nuclear talks must guarantee Iran’s ‘rights’

Iran's new President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that negotiations with world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear deal must guarantee Tehran's "rights".

"In any negotiation, the rights of the Iranian people must be upheld and the interests of our nation ensured," Raisi said in an hour-long phone call, according to the Iranian presidency's website.

This is Raisi's first reported call with a Western leader since taking office last week.

Raisi took over from Hassan Rouhani, a moderate whose landmark achievement during his two-term presidency was the 2015 nuclear agreement, which provided international sanctions relief in exchange for limitations on Tehran's nuclear programme.

Former US president Donald Trump torpedoed the deal three years later by unilaterally withdrawing Washington from it and reimposing crushing sanctions. Six rounds of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers were held in Vienna between April and June in an attempt to revive the accord. The last round concluded on June 20, with no date set for another.

Iranian officials have said negotiations will not resume before the new government takes over, while an EU official said at the weekend that meetings could resume in Vienna from early September. The accord's remaining parties are Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

"The Americans clearly violated their obligations by imposing new sanctions," Raisi told Macron, while also stressing the "failure" of European members of the deal to help Iran circumvent US sanctions.