Top security officials of Iran and the UK have held a telephone conversation during which they agreed to continue exchanging views regarding Tehran’s civilian nuclear program, official sources say.

Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani and the UK National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell discussed via phone during which they touched on resuming the nuclear negotiations to settle the issue of return of the UN nuclear sanctions, Nournews reports.

According to the news website which is affiliated to the SNSC, Larijani and Powell agreed to continue exchanging views on resolving the nuclear dispute through negotiations.

The UK together with France and Germany are the European parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) and have referred the dispute to the UN Security Council to be discussed at the world body in September on whether to reinstall Iran’s nuclear sanctions blocked under Resolution 2231 for ten years.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian re-appointed Larijani as secretary of the influential security body in August. He first served as the SNSC secretary from 2005 to 2007 and was Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator with the European powers during his first term.

In the meantime, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said after returning from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, China that Tehran will do its utmost to prevent the return of UN sanctions.

“We would like the world to understand that the move by the European troika is illegal and has no legitimacy,” he was quoted saying by local media.

During his visit to Tianjin, Iran, China and Russia in a joint letter addressed to the UN Secretary General and the president of the Security Council rejected the call by the European troika on demanding re-imposition of Iran’s nuclear sanctions and termed it void of legal basis.

According to Iran’s top diplomat, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has accepted that the developments following bombing of Iran’s peaceful nuclear sites under the UN safeguards require a new cooperation framework. 

In the wake of the US-Israel 12-day war on Iran last June, Tehran suspended its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog demanding a new modality in its relations with the agency.

The E3 has laid the resumption of Iran-IAEA ties and direct negotiations between Tehran and Washington as its key conditions for the talks with Tehran.

“Iran is not afraid of negotiations, and if necessary, it is not afraid of war either,” he added as Tehran has demanded the guarantee of not being attacked again during negotiations with the US in future. 

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