After 16 months of negotiations to revive Iran’s nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday that many issues still need to be settled before the country reaches a final deal. The European Union had set a Monday deadline for world powers to agree on the “final text” of the accord, which would broadly grant Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on the country’s nuclear program. FILE – In this Jan. 13, 2015 file photo released by the Office of the Iranian President, former President Hassan Rouhani visits the Bushehr nuclear power plant just outside Bushehr, Iran. (AP Photo/Office of the Iranian Presidency, Mohammad Berno, File) State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that Iran must drop “extraneous” demands in the negotiations, including the lifting of sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The only way to achieve a mutual return to compliance with the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] is for Iran to reject further unacceptable demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA,” Price said at a news conference. WHITE HOUSE WARNS ‘IRAN WILL FACE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES’ IF US CITIZENS ARE ATTACKED Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said earlier Monday that there are three issues that still need to be resolved. “We showed enough flexibility,” Amirabdolakhian said, according to Reuters. “We don’t want to end up with an agreement that after 40 days, two months or three months fails [materialized] on the ground.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian attends a press conference with Josep Borell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Iranian capital Tehran on June 25, 2022. (ATTA KENARE /AFP via Getty Images) EU negotiators have also criticized Iran’s demands that the International Atomic Energy Agency drop an investigation into traces of uranium found at undeclared facilities. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Former President Donald Trump pulled out of the original 2015 nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran, which responded by violating the deal’s limits on enriching uranium. Some Republican lawmakers in the US have called on the Biden administration to halt negotiations with Iran following the latest attack on Salman Rushdie in New York and a plot by a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to kill former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton . Rushdie has faced a fatwa calling for his death from Ayatollah Khomeini, the late ruler of Iran, since 1989. Reuters contributed to this report. Paul Best is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @KincaidBest.
