logo
Iran confirms fresh talks with European powers in Istanbul

Iran confirms fresh talks with European powers in Istanbul

Al Arabiya7 days ago
Iran confirmed fresh talks with European powers to be held on Friday in Istanbul, the country's state media reported, the first since the United States attacked Iranian nuclear facilities a month ago.
Iranian diplomats will meet counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, after the trio warned that sanctions could be reimposed on Tehran if it does return to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.
Western nations and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.
'In response to the request of European countries, Iran has agreed to hold a new round of talks,' said foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghai, as quoted by state TV on Monday.
The subject of the talks will be Iran's nuclear program, it added.
A German diplomatic source had told AFP on Sunday the E3 were in contact with Tehran and said 'Iran must never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon'.
'That is why Germany, France and the United Kingdom are continuing to work intensively in the E3 format to find a sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear program,' the source said.
Israel launched on June 13 a wave of surprise strikes on its regional nemesis, targeting key military and nuclear facilities.
The United States launched its own set of strikes against Iran's nuclear program on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.
Kremlin meeting
Iran and the United States had held several rounds of nuclear negotiations through Omani mediators before Israel launched its 12-day conflict against Iran.
However, US President Donald Trump's decision to join Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities effectively ended the talks.
The E3 countries last met with Iranian representatives in Geneva on June 21 -- just one day before the US strikes.
Also Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a surprise meeting in the Kremlin with Ali Larijani, top adviser to Iran's supreme leader on nuclear issues.
Larijani 'conveyed assessments of the escalating situation in the Middle East and around the Iranian nuclear program', Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the unannounced meeting.
Putin had expressed Russia's 'well-known positions on how to stabilize the situation in the region and on the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear program', he added.
Moscow has a cordial relationship with Iran's clerical leadership and provides crucial backing for Tehran but did not swing forcefully behind its partner even after the United States joined Israel's bombing campaign.
Snapback mechanism
Iran and world powers struck a deal in 2015 called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which placed significant restrictions on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
But the hard-won deal began to unravel in 2018, during Trump's first presidency, when the United States walked away from it and reimposed sanctions on Iran.
European countries have in recent days threatened to trigger the deal's 'snapback' mechanism, which allows the reimposition of sanctions in the event of non-compliance by Iran.
After a call with his European counterparts on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Western allies had 'absolutely no moral (or) legal grounds' for reactivating the snapback sanctions.
He elaborated in a post to social media Sunday.
'Through their actions and statements, including providing political and material support to the recent unprovoked and illegal military aggression of the Israeli regime and the US... the E3 have relinquished their role as 'Participants' in the JCPOA,' said Araghchi.
That made any attempt to reinstate the terminated UN Security Council resolutions 'null and void', he added.
'Iran has shown that it is capable of defeating any delusional 'dirty work' but has always been prepared to reciprocate meaningful diplomacy in good faith,' Araghchi wrote.
However, the German source said Sunday that 'if no solution is reached over the summer, snapback remains an option for the E3'.
Ali Velayati, an adviser to supreme leader Ali Khamenei, said last week there would be no new nuclear talks with the United States if they were conditioned on Tehran abandoning its uranium enrichment activities.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Pakistan suspends road travel to Iran, Iraq citing security concerns
Pakistan suspends road travel to Iran, Iraq citing security concerns

Arab News

time5 hours ago

  • Arab News

Pakistan suspends road travel to Iran, Iraq citing security concerns

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced on Sunday that the government will not allow pilgrims to travel to Iran and Iraq by road for the Arbaeen pilgrimage this year, citing public safety and national security concerns for the ban. Thousands of Pakistani citizens visit Iran and Iraq annually for religious tourism and to visit religious sites, including observing Arbaeen (Arabic for 'forty'), a significant religious occasion in Shia Islam. It marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussain, who was 'martyred' in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD. Travelers to Iran and Iraq by road have often been targeted in sectarian attacks by armed groups in Pakistan's restive southwestern Balochistan province, which shares a border with Iran. Islamabad's decision comes in the wake of a rise in militant attacks in the province by ethnic Baloch militant groups, who demand a greater share of the province's mineral resources from Islamabad. 'After extensive consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Balochistan Government, and security agencies, it has been decided that Zaireen will not be allowed to travel to Iraq and Iran by road for Arbaeen this year,' Naqvi wrote on X. After extensive consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Balochistan Government, and security agencies, it has been decided that Zaireen will not be allowed to travel to Iraq and Iran by road for Arbaeen this year. This difficult decision was taken in the interest of… — Mohsin Naqvi (@MohsinnaqviC42) July 27, 2025 The interior minister said this 'difficult decision' was taken in the interest of public safety and national security. However, he said Shia pilgrims will be allowed to travel by air to Iran and Iraq. 'Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to arrange maximum flights to facilitate their pilgrimage in the coming days,' he wrote. A Pakistani immigration official told Arab News earlier this month that Islamabad plans to overhaul its pilgrimage travel policy to Iraq, Iran and Syria after authorities confirmed around 40,000 Pakistani pilgrims went missing or overstayed in the three countries over the past decade. Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf revealed this month that 40,000 Pakistani pilgrims had either overstayed or gone missing in these countries without any official record of their whereabouts. In response, Pakistani authorities have scrapped the long-standing 'Salar system,' in which private group leaders managed travel logistics, and are introducing a new centralized, computerized structure to track and regulate pilgrim movement more effectively. Mustafa Jamal Kazi, Pakistan's director general of Immigration and Passports, said a new Ziyarat Management Policy has been finalized by the government under which pilgrims will only be allowed to travel in organized groups, and licensed tour operators will be held directly responsible for ensuring that all group members return to Pakistan before their visas expire. Any operator found violating the policy or failing to ensure the return of all pilgrims will have their license canceled.

Iran Executes Two Members of Mujahideen-e-Khalq Group
Iran Executes Two Members of Mujahideen-e-Khalq Group

Asharq Al-Awsat

time6 hours ago

  • Asharq Al-Awsat

Iran Executes Two Members of Mujahideen-e-Khalq Group

Iran executed two members of the banned Mujahideen-e-Khalq group for attacking civilian infrastructure with homemade projectiles, the judiciary news outlet Mizan said on Sunday. Mehdi Hassani and Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamloo, identified as "operational elements" of the MEK, were sentenced to death in September 2024 - a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court, which denied their request for a retrial, Mizan said. "The terrorists, in coordination with MEK leaders, had built launchers and hand-held mortars in line with the group's goals, fired projectiles heedlessly at citizens, homes, service and administrative facilities, educational and charity centers," the report said. The defendants were indicted with destroying public property and "membership in a terrorist organization with the aim of disrupting national security." The MEK, known in English as People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran, was a powerful leftist-militant group that staged bombing campaigns against the shah's government and US targets in the 1970s but ultimately fell out with the other factions of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Since then, the MEK has opposed Iran and its leadership in exile has been Paris-based. The group was listed as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union until 2012.

Activist boat Handala seized off Gaza brought to Israel
Activist boat Handala seized off Gaza brought to Israel

Al Arabiya

time7 hours ago

  • Al Arabiya

Activist boat Handala seized off Gaza brought to Israel

Israeli forces brought the pro-Palestinian activist boat Handala into the port of Ashdod on Sunday, after seizing the vessel in international waters and detaining the crew, an AFP journalist saw. Campaigners from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition had attempted to breach an Israeli naval blockade of the Palestinian territory of Gaza, but were intercepted late Saturday. The legal rights center Adalah told AFP its lawyers were in Ashdod and had asked to speak to the detained crew.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store