ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran has agreed to a new round of negotiations on its nuclear program with Britain, France, and Germany, semi-official media said on Sunday.
“Tehran has reached an agreement with the three European countries - Germany, France, and the United Kingdom - to hold negotiations on Iran’s nuclear issue,” Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, citing a “ knowledgeable source.”
While the sides have agreed in principle to hold talks, discussions over the time, location, and host country remain ongoing, it noted.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday said Western countries must act responsibly and abandon “worn-out policies of threat and pressure,” including the snap-back mechanism, which he claimed has “no moral or legal basis,” if they seek a new round of nuclear negotiations.
He made the remarks in a phone call with his British, French, and German counterparts, as well as EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
During the call, the Europeans told the Iranian top diplomat of "their determination to use the 'snapback' mechanism – which allows for the reimposition of all international sanctions against Iran – in the absence of concrete progress" towards a deal on Tehran's nuclear program "by the end of the summer," the French foreign ministry said.
Last month, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that the Europeans would be "justified" in seeking a snapback of UN sanctions lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers, later abandoned by US President Donald Trump.
"Without a firm, tangible, and verifiable commitment from Iran, we will do so no later than the end of August," he told reporters.
Iran and the US had held five rounds of Oman-mediated indirect nuclear talks before Israel attacked the Islamic republic last month, which effectively ended the negotiations, especially after Trump joined in striking Iran.
Washington on June 24 brokered a ceasefire to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later declared victory, claiming that Trump had exaggerated the destruction caused by US military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers - formally 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 first term, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and reimposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic, which in turn began rolling back on its nuclear commitments.
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