Iran could hold nuclear talks with European powers next week, Tasnim reports

Iran and the E3, Britain, France, and Germany, may hold nuclear talks next week, Tasnim reported, amid European warnings that failure to resume negotiations could trigger renewed international sanctions.

“The principle of holding talks has been agreed upon, but discussions are ongoing regarding the timing and location. The host country for next week’s meeting has not yet been finalised,” Tasnim quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying.

News of the possible talks follows the first official call between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the foreign ministers of the so-called E3 — Britain, France, and Germany — as well as the European Union’s foreign policy chief, since last month’s Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

The E3, together with China and Russia, remain signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which saw sanctions lifted in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear activities. The United States withdrew from the deal in 2018.

The E3 nations have warned that unless nuclear negotiations resume and yield concrete results, they will trigger the “snapback mechanism” to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran by the end of August.

“If the EU and E3 want to play a constructive role, they must act responsibly and abandon outdated strategies of threats and pressure, including the so-called ‘snapback’, which they have no moral or legal basis to pursue,” Araqchi said earlier this week.

The snapback clause allows for the reactivation of U.N. sanctions prior to the expiration of the Security Council resolution enshrining the nuclear deal, set for 18 October.

Before the recent Israel-Iran conflict, Tehran and Washington held five rounds of indirect nuclear talks mediated by Oman. However, key disagreements remained — particularly over Iran’s uranium enrichment levels, which Western powers seek to reduce to eliminate any risk of weaponisation.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely for civilian and peaceful purposes.

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