Iran to hold talks with Europeans on Friday: FM spox
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Wednesday that Iran will hold a fresh round of nuclear talks with European powers in Turkey later this week.
The talks with Britain, France and Germany would be held in Istanbul on Friday, Baqaei said.
French diplomatic sources gave the same information, but there was still no word from Berlin or London on the meeting which was originally slated for earlier this month but postponed.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the talks would be held “at the level of deputy foreign ministers.”
The European nations – known as the E3 – were among the world powers that negotiated the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal along with China, Russia and the United States.
Donald Trump, in his first term as president, effectively torpedoed the accord in 2018 by unilaterally withdrawing the United States.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran, backing nuclear diplomacy but warning of military action if it fails.
Iran has held several meetings on the nuclear issue with the E3 since late last year – most recently in February in Geneva – ahead of indirect negotiations with Washington that began on April 12.
“While we continue the dialogue with the United States, we are also ready to talk with the Europeans,” Araghchi said.
“Unfortunately, the Europeans themselves have become somewhat isolated in these negotiations with their own policies,” he added.
“We do not want such a situation and that’s why we have continued our negotiations” with them, he said.
Friday’s meeting will follow the latest round of Oman-mediated Iran-US talks on Sunday, which Tehran described as “difficult but useful” while a US official said Washington was “encouraged.”
European governments have recently threatened to trigger the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 deal, which would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance – an option that expires in October.
Following the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, relations between Iran and Europe began to deteriorate due to the Europe’s failure to fulfill its commitments under the agreement.
Iran’s foreign minister in an article published by French weekly Le Point said the snapback mechanism had designed as a last-resort dispute tool and now wielded as diplomatic leverage.
“This strategy of confrontation risks provoking a global nuclear proliferation crisis that would primarily affect Europeans themselves,” Araghchi warned the European countries.