US to Iran’s Raisi: Seize opportunity for diplomacy now

The stance by Washington official comes as Raisi pledges ‘diplomacy’ and ‘constructive’ engagement in his inaugural speech.

A United States diplomatic spokesman has urged Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi to return to talks on the resumption of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, repeating a US stance that the window for diplomacy would not stay open forever. Iran has been negotiating with six leading powers to revive a deal abandoned unilaterally in 2018 by then-US President Donald Trump, who claimed the agreement was ineffective and adopted a hardline policy towards Tehran. Multilateral talks in Vienna on renewing the ban on Iran gaining nuclear weapons were suspended on June 20 pending the outcome of Iran’s national election which Raisi won.