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Top EU diplomat visits Iran to revive nuclear talks

#Top #diplomat #visits #Iran #revive #nuclear #talks

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met with Iran’s top diplomats on Saturday after arriving in Tehran for talks on efforts to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Borrell’s surprise visit, which arrived in the Iranian capital on Friday night, aims to restart talks three months after they stalled amid differences between Iran and the United States.

“Diplomacy is the only way to return to full implementation of the deal and reverse current tensions,” Borrell tweeted.

Borrell was due to meet Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in the morning and was scheduled to hold talks with other Iranian officials later in the day, the official IRNA news agency said.

The Iran nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the deal and began slapping crippling economic sanctions on America’s nemesis.

The administration of incumbent US President Joe Biden has tried to return to the deal, saying it is the best way to go with the Islamic Republic.

US head of affairs for Iran Robert Malley “reaffirmed US firm commitment to come back to the deal” at a meal with Borrell on the eve of his trip, according to EU coordinator for the talks Enrique Mora.

– “Meaningful Diplomacy” –

“We remain committed to the path of meaningful diplomacy in consultation with our European partners,” Malley later said on his official Twitter account.

The talks, which began in April last year, aim to bring the United States back to the deal, including by lifting sanctions, while ensuring Iran fully complies with its nuclear commitments.

Negotiations stalled in March over differences between Tehran and Washington, particularly over a request by Iran to remove its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a US terrorist list.

“We stand ready to finalize this deal and urge Iran to seize this diplomatic opportunity to finalize it now while it still can,” a French foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Friday.

Amir-Abdollahian said Thursday Iran is “serious” about reaching an agreement.

“I hope that we can reach the endpoint of the deal in the near future with realism from the American side,” he said, adding that “the nuclear talks train has reached difficult stations as it nears the end.”

The 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US – gave Iran an exemption from sanctions in exchange for guarantees that it could not develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has always denied wanting a nuclear arsenal.

-cameras removed-

In April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States still believed a return to the deal was “the best way to meet Iran’s nuclear challenge.”

Blinken warned at the time that the “break-through time” for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb if it so desires was “only a matter of weeks” after the deal pushed it out for over a year.

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency this month passed a resolution chiding Iran for failing to adequately explain the earlier discovery of trace amounts of enriched uranium at three sites where Tehran had not conducted nuclear activities.

On the same day, June 8, Tehran said it had shut down a number of IAEA cameras that had been monitoring its nuclear sites.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi later confirmed that 27 cameras had been shut down, leaving about 40 remaining.

Iran’s move, he warned, could deal a “deadly blow” to the negotiations if inspectors from the UN nuclear regulatory body did not gain access within three to four weeks.

Borrell’s visit, his first to Tehran since February 2020, could be a deciding factor in the fate of the deal.

During talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the deal, Iran has repeatedly demanded guarantees from the Biden administration that Trump’s withdrawal will not be repeated.

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