TEHRAN, 25 December 2021, (TON): Iraq’s foreign minister said on a visit to Tehran that the time has come for the Islamic republic and the United States to negotiate directly on Iran s nuclear ambitions.

US-Iran relations have been severed since April 1980, just months after the fall of the shah and the occupation of the American embassy by Islamist students loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

They worsened significantly after US president Donald Trump s 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw from the nuclear deal and impose sanctions on Tehran.

Negotiations resumed in November after a five-month hiatus to try to restore the deal, which gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities.

Diplomats from the remaining parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — are in talks in Vienna with Iran and the US, with the two sides refusing direct contact.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told a joint press conference “we call for, and this is no secret, direct negotiations between the two parties.”

He said “Iraq s interest is in helping the two parties to sit round a table and talk.”