Iran says to hold indirect talks with U.S. on nuclear sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the talks would focus on the lifting of sanctions imposed by Washington on Tehran and be held "in a Persian Gulf country in the coming days, later this week"

Iran said Monday that its indirect talks with the United States would resume this week in a Gulf country, as part of wider efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

The negotiations will be separate from broader talks in Vienna between Iran and major powers that are mediated by the EU, the bloc's top diplomat Joseph Borrell said Saturday in Tehran.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the talks would focus on the lifting of sanctions imposed by Washington on Tehran and be held "in a Persian Gulf country in the coming days, later this week".

Iran's Tasnim news agency, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry source, reported separately that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri would visit Qatar on Tuesday for "negotiations on lifting sanctions", and that the US-Iranian indirect talks would be held there.

The landmark nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018, when then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it and began imposing harsh economic sanctions on America's arch enemy.

US President Joe Biden's administration has sought to return to the agreement, saying it would be the best path ahead with the Islamic republic.

"What we will do in the coming days does not concern the nuclear dimension but existing differences (and) the lifting of sanctions," Mr. Khatibzadeh said.