(Bloomberg) -- Iran will return to talks on reviving the deal curbing its nuclear program ‘very soon,’ Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Friday.

At a breakfast with reporters in New York, the top Iranian diplomat said his nation sees negotiations as part of diplomacy but the U.S. keeps sending contradictory signals. He said President Joe Biden keeps damaging trade sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump “close to his heart.”

Amirabdollahian said the U.S. continues to block access to funds in foreign banks that could be used to buy vaccines for the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. and Western powers have warned Iran that time is running out for the 2015 nuclear accord known as the JCPOA to be revived, saying Iran’s progress in enriching nuclear material is eroding the gains that a return to the agreement would enshrine.

Iran’s return to the terms of the deal along with the U.S. has been a key issue discussed by world leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

In a video speech to the assembly on Tuesday, the country’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, reiterated demands that “all oppressive sanctions” against Iran be removed, saying the U.S. was using them as a new means of warfare.

 

 

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