Iranian President: Tehran ‘Never Had Hope’ in Vienna Nuclear Talks

Hardline Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, said on Friday that Tehran "never" places hope in current discussions in Vienna aimed at renewing the country's 2015 nuclear deal with foreign powers.

After a 10-day break, Iran and the US resumed indirect negotiations in the Austrian capital on Tuesday, but envoys gave few hints as to whether they were any closer to resolving many difficult issues.

"We put our hopes in the east, west, north, and south of our country, and we never have any hope in Vienna or New York," Raisi said in a televised speech marking the Iranian revolution's 43rd anniversary.

Raisi, whose election in June caused a five-month pause in the talks, said Iran would rely on its own economic potential rather than relying on international support and nuclear talks with world powers.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden's administration officially pressed Iran to resurrect the agreement as soon as possible, claiming that if a deal is not reached within weeks, it will be hard to return to the pact.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the pact had a long way to go before it could be restored.

Raisi stated, "We have a well-balanced foreign policy. The country's connections have become unbalanced as a result of its focus on the West; instead, we must consider all countries and capacities in the globe, particularly those of our neighbours."

Chants of "Death to America" - a trademark phrase of the revolution that deposed the US-backed shah in 1979 - regularly interrupted his speech. "Death to England" and "Death to Israel" were also chanted by the audience.

Iranians honoured the revolution's anniversary for the second year in a straight by parading vehicles in the streets rather than marching on foot, in accordance with laws aimed at reducing COVID-19 infection.

Live footage of vehicles and motorcycles going through the streets of dozens of cities and villages where tens of thousands of people will march for the yearly event before the pandemic was broadcast on state television.

In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal, which was designed to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and reimposed sanctions in an attempt to force Tehran into talks on a broader agreement that would have addressed the Iranian ballistic missile programme and support for Middle Eastern proxies.

Iran retaliated by breaking several of the deal's limits and going well beyond them, enriching uranium to near-nuclear bomb-grade levels and doing so with advanced centrifuges, which helped it polish its skills in running those machines.

The Iranian foreign ministry said on Monday that the US had to make a "political decision" on lifting sanctions since Tehran's demand for their complete removal in order to resurrect the 2015 agreement was non-negotiable.