Iran talks to resume Dec. 27, Iraq FM calls for direct talks between US and Iran
“We think the time has come for direct talks between Washington and Tehran to reach common understandings not just on the nuclear issue, but also on sanctions,” Iraq FM Fuad Hussain said in Iran.
Iran talks will resume in Vienna on Monday, December 27th, European Union coordinator Enrique Mora announced. “Welcome to the 8th round,” he tweeted.
Iraq Foreign Minister Fuad Hussain, on a visit to Iran today (Dec. 23), called for direct talks between the United States and Iran.
"We think the time has come for direct talks between Washington and Tehran to reach common understandings not just on the nuclear issue, but also on sanctions,” Hussain said at a joint news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran today.
“We need direct contact between the two parties and we are working towards that," Hussein said.
The Iraqi diplomat also said that the United States worked with Iraq and Saudi Arabia to arrange the medical transfer of Iran’s ambassador to Yemen Hassan Irloo to Iran, who subsequently died of covid-19.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called the Trump administration’s decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal “one of the worst decisions made in American foreign policy in the last decade.”
“Now, we are where we are because of what I consider to be one of the worst decisions made in American foreign policy in the last decade, and that was getting out of the Iran nuclear agreement,…an agreement that had put Iran’s nuclear program in a box,” Blinken responded to a question about how long the U.S. was giving for talks on trying to restore US and Iranian full implementation of the Iran nuclear deal at a year end press conference on Tuesday (Dec. 21).
“In getting out of that agreement, we were promised that it would be replaced by a stronger one,” he continued. “Instead, of course, we’ve seen just the opposite: There hasn’t been a new and improved agreement. To the contrary, Iran has broken loose from the constraints imposed on it.”
“So that’s the reality of what we’re dealing with, but we are dealing with it,” he said. “We will deal with it. We continue to have a strong interest in seeing if we can put the nuclear program back into the box that it was in.”
And something from Seinfeld that reminded me a bit of the Iran talks.
“The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances,” Frank Constanza announces to the gathering. “I got a lot of problems with you people. Now, you are going to hear about it.”
Happy Festivus and safe, healthy happy holiday wishes for all.
Back next week.