Washington announces that it is "ready" for "urgent" direct negotiations with Tehran (official)

 A US official said today, Monday, that the United States is ready to start "direct and urgent" negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, a spokesman told AFP.

The agency quoted the spokesman as saying: The direct meeting will allow communication in a more effective manner, and this is necessary to reach an understanding quickly.

 Earlier today, Tehran raised the possibility of holding direct talks with Washington if they are necessary to conclude a "good" understanding backed by guarantees during the talks aimed at reviving the agreement on its nuclear program.

 For months, Tehran and the forces that are still included in the 2015 agreement have been negotiating to revive the agreement, from which the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018, re-imposing sanctions on Tehran, which prompted the latter to retreat from basic commitments that were included in it.

 Washington participates indirectly in the talks, and the remaining parties to the agreement, namely Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, in addition to the European Union, coordinate positions between the Iranian and American negotiators.

 The Islamic Republic has repeatedly refused to hold direct talks with the United States in Vienna, arguing that Washington is no longer a party to the agreement.

 Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Monday that "the American side is sending messages in different ways that it is looking for a certain level of direct talks with Iran," in televised statements during a conference at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Tehran.

 He added, "Currently Iran does not talk directly to the United States (...) but if we reach a point during the negotiations where a good agreement with strong guarantees needs to be reached at a certain level of talks with the United States, we will not ignore that in our work schedule."

 The Vienna talks began in April 2021, and were suspended in June, coinciding with the election of the hard-line conservative Ebrahim Raisi as Iran's president, succeeding the moderate Hassan Rouhani, who concluded the agreement during his reign.

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 Journalists are working on editing this story, will update as soon as possible with more information as it comes in