(Brussels) Iranian deputy minister in charge of the nuclear issue Ali Baghéri will meet this week in Brussels with European negotiator Enrique Mora to discuss a resumption of negotiations in Vienna, the spokesman for the head of the EU told AFP on Monday. European diplomacy.
“A meeting between the two men is scheduled this week,” said Peter Stano. But “no meeting is planned with Josep Borrell”, the coordinator of the negotiations on the nuclear agreement concluded in 2015 with Iran also known by its English acronym JCPOA, he specified.
Ali Baghéri announced on his Twitter account that he would “meet the coordinator of the JCPOA on Wednesday in Brussels to continue our discussions in order to resume negotiations with a view to achieving results”.
The EU urges the Iranians to resume negotiations initiated in Vienna to save this agreement supposed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. They have been suspended since the election in June of a new Iranian president.
“The talks must be held in Vienna,” insist the Europeans.
But the Iranians want to “discuss the issues that remained unresolved” after talks with European negotiator Enrique Mora on October 14 in Tehran.
Josep Borrell, informed of the wish of the Iranian negotiator to meet him, said he was ready to receive him, but not to negotiate.
The Iranians tried to force his hand by announcing the organization of a meeting with him in Brussels last Thursday, but Josep Borrell let them know that he had nothing planned on that date.
“The Iranians are not yet ready to resume talks in Vienna,” said a European official. “However, the objective is for them to resume as quickly as possible”.
The Iranians “want clarifications on the text that is on the table (in Vienna) and bilateral contacts with some of the signatory countries,” he said.
“We strongly support the EU’s dialogue with Iran”, but “the final destination must be Vienna” where the United States is indirectly participating in the negotiations, also reacted the spokesman for American diplomacy Ned Price, in front of the press in Washington.
The agreement concluded between Iran on the one hand and the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France and Germany on the other, offered Tehran the lifting of part of the international sanctions which strangle its economy in exchange for a drastic reduction in its nuclear program, placed under strict UN control.
But the Americans unilaterally left the agreement in 2018 under President Donald Trump, and reinstated their sanctions. In return, Tehran has gradually abandoned its commitments.
Current US President Joe Biden has said he is ready to return to the JCPOA, on condition that Iran simultaneously revives restrictions on its nuclear program.
But in the face of the current stalemate, the United States has raised the tone and threatens to resort to the military option if diplomacy fails to prevent Iran from acquiring the weapon. atomic.
“We will continue to push for diplomacy even taking other measures, if we find ourselves in a situation where it is necessary,” US envoy for Iran Rob Malley reaffirmed Monday to reporters.
The “door” to save the 2015 agreement “is not going to stay open forever,” he warned.