Al Thani and Blinken also conferred on several regional issues, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine and the situation in Afghanistan.
The statement did not mention the details of Al Thani and Blinken's conversation, but in the past months, the foreign ministers of the two countries have discussed several regional and international issues, including negotiations on reviving the JCOPA deal and lifting anti-Iran sanctions.
The talks were held after the Advisor to the Qatari Foreign Minister Mohamed Bin Mubarak Al-Khulaifi paid a visit to Iran earlier this week and held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kan'ani touched upon the situation of the JCPOA revival process at his weekly press conference on Monday, citing that the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes the initiatives of Oman and Qatar in this regard. "We still consider diplomacy to be the best way to fulfill the rights of the Iranian nation. In this regard, we adhered to the JCPOA and used the available capacities in the framework of the sanctions-lifting negotiations," Kan'ani stressed.
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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