Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers "has no future and is not in line with reality," a senior official in Germany's Free Democrats (FDP), a junior partner in the ruling coalition, told two online news outlets in an interview published on Wednesday.
Bijan Djir-Sarai, general secretary of the liberal FDP, told Web.de News and Gmx News that continuing talks on the deal would mean "negotiating with an inhuman regime that is completely rejected by its own people and has no legitimacy whatsoever."
"From my point of view, this agreement has no future and is not in line with reality," Djir-Sarai, who was born in Iran, said in a transcript of the interview released by the FDP.
Reviving Iran nuclear deal
Efforts to revive the nuclear deal have stalled and ties between Iran and the West are increasingly strained as Iranians keep up anti-government protests despite an increasingly deadly state crackdown.
US President Joe Biden had sought to negotiate the return of Iran to the nuclear deal after then-President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018.
But last month the White House said it had set aside diplomacy for now and said Tehran had supplied drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said last month the United States lacked the political will for the revival of the deal.
The 2015 agreement limited Iran's uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear arms, in return for lifting international sanctions.