Iran to hold nuclear talks with three European countries on Friday

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that, in the following days, it will hold nuclear talks with three European countries, days after the United Nations nuclear watchdog adopted a resolution accusing Iran of lack of cooperation.

Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry, told reporters that a meeting will be held on Friday between deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The discussions will cover bilateral, regional, and international matters.

“A range of regional and international issues and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue, will be discussed,” Baghaei said in a statement, without specifying the location of the meetings.

Baghaei described the upcoming talks with the three European countries as a continuation of discussions held in September on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York.

The meeting comes days after Britain, France, Germany, and the United States submitted a text to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors, condemning and accusing Iran of lack of cooperation with the UN watchdog.

The IAEA board adopted a resolution denouncing Iran for “lack of cooperation.”

"This inappropriate action of the three European countries to issue a resolution against Iran will only weaken and disrupt interactive processes between the agency and Iran," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement.

Earlier this month, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited Tehran on a two-day trip.

Following a meeting with Grossi, Araghchi said on X that Tehran will continue its “full cooperation” with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog to ensure compliance through a “peaceful” nuclear program.

Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.

But the deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under Trump’s administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic republic, which, in turn, began stepping up its nuclear enrichment efforts.

Tehran, however, has repeatedly denied that it seeks to develop an atomic bomb, saying that such a move goes against the Islamic republic’s doctrine.

In September, Grossi told Rudaw in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York that the international community and Iran need a “solid framework” to stabilize the situation regarding Tehran’s nuclear program.

A year prior, he condemned Tehran’s decision to unilaterally withdraw accreditation from IAEA inspectors, after Tehran withdrew their licenses on what they said were “excessive demands” by Western powers seeking to “destroy cooperation between Iran and the IAEA” and misusing the watchdog “for their own political purposes.”

In February, the US said it was “seriously concerned” about the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program and slammed Tehran’s cooperation as “severely lacking.”