- The Iranian Foreign Minister will meet with his counterparts in France, Germany and Britain.
- Spokesman Baghaei did not say where the talks would take place.
- He added, “Tehran believes that the nuclear issue must be resolved through diplomacy.”
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will hold talks on its controversial nuclear program with the three European powers on November 29 (Friday), the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, days after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a resolution against Tehran.
Iran responded to the resolution – proposed by Britain, France, Germany and the United States – with what government officials described as various measures such as activating several new and advanced centrifuges, which are uranium enrichment machines.
Japan Kyodo The news agency, which was the first to report that the meeting would be held on Friday in Geneva, said that the government of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was seeking a solution to the nuclear crisis before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump in January.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting will be held next Friday, adding: “Tehran always believes that the nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomacy. Iran has never left the talks.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei later said that the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and Britain would participate in the talks, which he said would cover regional issues in addition to the nuclear file.
Baghaei did not say where the talks would take place. A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry asked questions to the countries mentioned in the Kyodo report.
Baqaei said, “Viewpoints will be exchanged…on a group of regional discussions and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue.”
In 2018, the then Trump administration exited the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement with six major powers and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate the nuclear limits of the agreement, through steps such as rebuilding stocks of enriched uranium, and enriching it to fissile purity. Top and installation of advanced centrifuges to speed up the production process.
Indirect talks between President Joe Biden’s administration and Tehran to try to revive the agreement failed, but Trump said during his election campaign in September: “We have to make an agreement, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make an agreement.”