Palais Coburg, the site of a meeting of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in Vienna, Austria, February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

JNS.org – An Iranian news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps lashed out on Tuesday at Israel’s delegation to the nuclear talks in Vienna.

“The open and unexpected presence of the Zionists in Vienna undoubtedly represents a deterring factor to progress in the Vienna talks at the current sensitive juncture,” tweeted Nour News in Hebrew. “The dialogue between Israel’s representatives and [International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi] and [Russian envoy to the talks Mikhail] Ulyanov, whatever their purpose, is a step toward fulfilling this regime’s characteristic destructive role,” the tweet continued.

The Israeli delegation, led by Joshua Zarka, the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s strategic department, was dispatched to Vienna to clarify Israel’s position regarding a possible return to the 2015 nuclear accord.

Zarka met on Tuesday with Robert Malley, the lead US negotiator of the 2015 deal, as well as with negotiators from Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. On Monday, he met with IAEA director Grossi.

Talks over Iran’s nuclear activities resumed last week after halting at the end of last month. Parties to the deal have been negotiating in the Austrian capital since last year, without Israeli involvement and with indirect US participation.