In an interview with an Arab media outlet, Marandi stressed that negotiations between Iran and the US are conducted indirectly through mediators such as Oman or the United Nations.
He emphasized that all the negotiations are about swapping prisoners and releasing Iran's assets that are frozen due to US sanctions.
Iranian and American sides do not hold meetings in the same room during these negotiations, he added.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran is exchanging messages with Washington through various channels during the talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal and the removal of sanctions.
Amir-Abdollahian also told Le Figaro that Iran had long negotiations in Vienna and the two sides were close to reaching an agreement but the other side had too many demands that hindered the progress of negotiations. He added that the path of diplomacy and negotiations continues.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. Former US President Donald Trump illegally pulled out of the deal in 2018 while the current US President, Joe Biden, has signaled that he is ready to resurrect the agreement.
Russia, the UK, Germany, China, the US, and France have been in talks with Iran since April 2021 to reinstate the deal.
The talks to salvage the JCPOA kicked off in the Austrian capital of Vienna in April 2021, with the intention of examining Washington’s seriousness in rejoining the deal and removing anti-Iran sanctions.
The negotiations have been at a standstill since August due to Washington’s insistence on its hard-nosed position of not removing all the sanctions that were slapped on the Islamic Republic by the previous US administration. Iran maintains it is necessary for the other side to offer some guarantees that it will remain committed to any agreement that is reached.
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