Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian says Japan has proposed an initiative to revive a stalled nuclear deal struck in 2015 with Iran and six major powers, including the United States.
Amir Abdollahian told Kyodo News that any initiative from Japan that aligns with "Iran's interests" would be viewed positively by Tehran. He stated, "We support the constructive role of Japan in reviving the nuclear deal."
The Iranian foreign minister did not detail the initiative. He said he received the proposal from the Japanese government when he visited Tokyo in August and met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and then Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.
The nuclear agreement was reached by Iran and the six nations -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
Negotiations over the deal have been at a stalemate since then President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the accord in 2018, the year following his inauguration. Subsequently, Iran violated some of the agreement's restrictions.
In 2021, the United States, now under President Joe Biden's administration, along with the other parties to the 2015 deal, resumed negotiations with the objective of facilitating Washington's re-entry into the agreement.
Amir Abdollahian said, however, "excessive demands" by the United States, Britain, France and Germany regarding the nuclear deal have delayed the talk's progress.
He also attributed the delay to what he described as "interference" by the countries in a domestic issue of Iran, particularly regarding protests over the death last year of a young Kurdish woman who was arrested after allegedly not adhering to the country's legal requirement to wear a hijab.
The United States, Britain and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities for their alleged involvement in Iran's violent suppression of the protests.
© KYODO