US envoy not confident Iran nuclear deal is imminent

USSpecial Envoy forIranRobert Malley said on Sunday that he was not confident that anucleardealbetween world powers andIranwas imminent after 11 months of talks in Vienna that have stalled.

"I can't be confident it is imminent.. a few months ago we thought we were pretty close as well," Malley said at the Doha Forum international conference.

"The sooner we get back into thedeal, which is in our interest, and presumablyIran's interest, the more faithfully we implement it."

His assessment of negotiations in Vienna to revive a 2015nuclearaccord seemed to contradict Kamal Kharrazi, a senior advisor toIran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Yes, it's imminent. It depends on the political will of the United States," Kharrazi told the conference.

Then-USPresident Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018, prompting Tehran to start violating itsnuclearlimits about a year later, and months of on-and-off talks to revive it paused in Vienna earlier this month after Russia presented a new obstacle.

Russia later said it had received written guarantees that it would be able to carry out its work as a party to thedeal, suggesting Moscow could allow it to be resuscitated.

The failure of efforts to restore the pact could carry the risk of a regional war, or lead to more harsh Western sanctions onIranand continued upward pressure on world oil prices that are already high due to the Ukraine conflict, analysts say.

Kharrazi said it was vital for Washington to remove the foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) designation againstIran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

"IRGC is a national army and a national army being listed as a terrorist group certainly is not acceptable," he said.

Tehran has also been pushing for guarantees that any future USpresident would not withdraw from thedeal, which would curb Tehran'snuclearprogramme in exchange for lifting tough sanctions which have hammeredIran's economy.

The extent to which sanctions would be rolled back is another sensitive subject.

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