TEHRAN: Iran held talks on Tuesday with European powers, seeking to avert a sanctions snapback which they have threatened to impose under the moribund 2015 nuclear deal.
Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian deputy foreign minister who attended the talks with Britain, France and Germany in Geneva, said in a post on X it was “high time” for the European trio “to make the right choice and give diplomacy time and space”.
“It was decided that contacts between the two sides would continue in the coming days,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state TV after the talks ended.
The European trio – parties to the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal – have threatened to trigger the accord’s “snapback mechanism” by the end of August.
Tuesday’s meeting was the second round of talks with European diplomats since the end of a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June, triggered by an unprecedented Israeli surprise attack.
Iran, European powers to discuss nuclear talks, sanctions, IRNA reports
That war had derailed Tehran’s nuclear negotiations with the United States and prompted Iran to suspend cooperation with the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
Baqaei earlier argued that the European powers “do not have the legal and moral” grounds to trigger a snapback, telling reporters that “we will not allow this issue to become a tool of psychological warfare.”
The move would reimpose sweeping UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 agreement unless Iran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment and restore cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.
Baqaei told a regular press conference ahead of the Geneva meeting that “our focus is on preventing actions or incidents that may be costly for the country.”
The window for activating the snapcback mechanism closes in October – after which the UN sanctions would be permanently removed – but according to the Financial Times, the Europeans have suggested pushing back that deadline.
Iran has dismissed the Europeans’ right to extend the deadline, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently said Tehran was working with its allies China and Russia to prevent the reimposition of sanctions.
The nuclear deal was torpedoed in 2018 when Donald Trump, during his first term as president, unilaterally withdrew the United States and slapped crippling sanctions on Iran.
Just before the recent war with Israel, Iran held five rounds of talks with the United States with the aim of reaching a new deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
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