BERLIN: Iran confirmed that new talks with European powers would be held in Istanbul on Friday, the country’s state media reported, the first since the United States attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities a month ago.
Iranian diplomats will meet their British, French and German counterparts, known as the E3, after the trio warned sanctions could be reimposed on Tehran if it does not return to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.
Western countries and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran has always denied.
“In response to the request of European countries, Iran agreed to hold a new round of negotiations,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghai said on Monday, quoted by state television.
The subject of the negotiations will be the Iranian nuclear program, the press release added.
A German diplomatic source told AFP on Sunday that the E3 was in contact with Tehran and declared: “Iran must never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.”
“This is why Germany, France and the United Kingdom continue to work intensively in the E3 format to find a lasting and verifiable diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program,” the source said.
Israel launched a wave of surprise strikes against its regional enemy on June 13, targeting key military and nuclear installations.
The United States launched its own series of strikes against Iran’s nuclear program on June 22, hitting the Fordo uranium enrichment facility in Qom province, south of Tehran, as well as the nuclear sites at Isfahan and Natanz.
Kremlin meeting
Iran and the United States conducted several rounds of nuclear negotiations through Omani mediators before Israel launched its 12-day war against Iran.
However, US President Donald Trump’s decision to join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities effectively ended the negotiations.
The E3 countries last met with Iranian representatives in Geneva on June 21 – just a day before the US strikes.
Also on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a surprise meeting in the Kremlin with Ali Larijani, Iran’s Supreme Leader’s top adviser on nuclear issues.
Larijani “conveyed assessments of the escalating situation in the Middle East and around Iran’s nuclear program,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the unannounced meeting.
Putin expressed Russia’s “well-known positions on how to stabilize the situation in the region and on the political settlement of Iran’s nuclear program,” he added.
Moscow maintains cordial relations with Iran’s clerical leaders and provides crucial support to Tehran, but has not forcefully backed its partner even after the United States joined Israel’s bombing campaign.
Reminder mechanism
Iran and world powers reached a deal in 2015 called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which imposed significant restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
But that hard-won deal began to unravel in 2018, during Trump’s first presidency, when the United States withdrew from it and reimposed sanctions on Iran.
European countries have threatened in recent days to trigger the “snapback” mechanism of the agreement, which allows sanctions to be reimposed in the event of non-compliance by Iran.
After a phone call with his European counterparts on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Western allies had “absolutely no moral (or) legal basis” to reactivate sanctions.
He explained in a message posted on social media on Sunday.
“Through their actions and statements, including providing political and material support for the recent unprovoked and illegal military aggression of the Israeli regime and the United States… the E3 has renounced its role as ‘participants’ in the JCPOA,” Araghchi said.
This renders “null and void any attempt to reinstate UN Security Council resolutions,” he added.
“Iran has shown that it is capable of defeating any illusory ‘dirty work,’ but it has always been ready to reciprocate in good faith through meaningful diplomacy,” Araghchi wrote.
Ali Velayati, adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week that there would be no new nuclear negotiations with the United States if they were conditional on Tehran abandoning its uranium enrichment activities.
