US ‘open’ to direct talks with Iran at meeting on nuclear deal

US and Iranian officials will be in the same city for the meeting, but there are currently no plans to meet directly.

The United States has confirmed it will take part in a meeting in Vienna next week on the Iran nuclear deal and said it was “open” to sit down directly with Tehran. The European Union announced Friday the in-person meeting of all parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), from which former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018, instead imposing a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign. The European parties to the accord said they would have “separate” contacts in Vienna with the United States and Iran, which has already rejected a direct meeting with the US, with a European diplomat telling Reuters news agency that, “Iran and the US will be in the same town, but not the same room.”