WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Thursday it was ready to hold talks with Iran and other world powers to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program, marking a first step in a possible diplomatic deal that could see Washington re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.
The United States would be prepared to accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting of the countries that signed the 2015 nuclear agreement — Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran — “to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran’s nuclear program,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
The offer coincided with a tweet from the European Union’s deputy secretary general for political affairs, Enrique Mora, who said the nuclear accord was at “a critical moment” and that he was ready to invite all the participants in the deal to “an informal meeting to discuss the way forward.”
Senior State Department officials told reporters the announcement did not represent a breakthrough but merely a first step on a potentially long, arduous diplomatic effort.
“I think we recognize that this is just a very first initial step to say that we are prepared to attend the meeting that would be convened by the EU,” said a senior State Department official. “We recognize that that’s not in and of itself a breakthrough, even the first meeting itself may not be a breakthrough,” the official told reporters.
“But it is a step. Until we sit down and talk nothing’s going to happen.”
