Iran to hold nuclear talks with three European powers in Geneva on Friday, Kyodo reports

DUBAI – Iran plans to hold talks about its disputed nuclear programme with three European powers on Nov 29 in Geneva, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Nov 24, days after the UN atomic watchdog passed a resolution against Tehran.

Iran reacted to the resolution, which was proposed by Britain, France, Germany and the United States, with what government officials called various measures such as activating numerous new and advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium.

Japan’s Kyodo first reported on the meeting, and said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government was seeking a solution to the nuclear impasse ahead of the inauguration in January of US President-elect Donald Trump.

A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting would go ahead on Nov 29, adding that “Tehran has always believed that the nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomacy. Iran has never left the talks”.

Separately, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the deputy foreign ministers of Iran and the three European countries would take part in the talks, which he said would cover regional issues as well as the nuclear dossier.

He did not say where the talks would take place. A spokesperson for the Swiss foreign ministry directed questions to the countries named in the Kyodo report.

A spokesperson for the Swiss foreign ministry directed questions to the countries named in the report.

In 2018, the then-Trump administration exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate the pact’s nuclear limits, with moves such as rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.

Indirect talks between President Joe Biden’s administration and Tehran to try to revive the pact have failed, but Trump said in his election campaign in September that “we have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make a deal”. REUTERS