High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on Monday held talks in the Iranian capital during a mission aimed at lowering tensions over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Borrell’s trip, his first to Iran since taking office, follows a spike in tensions between archenemies Washington and Tehran after the Jan. 3 assassination in Baghdad of a top Iranian general in a US drone strike.
Borrell started his visit by meeting Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif, discussing the situation in the region and ways of reducing tensions, as well as a 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Borrell later met separately with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.
The nuclear deal between Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, the US and Russia — and Germany offered Tehran a partial reprieve from crippling international sanctions.
However, it has been crumbling since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018, and Washington has since stepped up sanctions and a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran.
Tehran has gradually stepped back from its own commitments under the deal, while military tensions with the US brought the two countries to the brink of a full-blown confrontation last month.
The European parties to the agreement last month triggered a complaint mechanism under the deal in a bid to press Tehran to return to full implementation.
However, Borrell played up the future of the deal and the commitment of France, Germany and Britain to try and keep it alive.
“The activation of the dispute settlement mechanism ... doesn’t mean that these countries want to go to the Security Council in order to definitely cancel the nuclear deal,” he told reporters.
“All of them insisted on the idea that this was not a measure oriented to finish with the deal, but to try to keep it alive, to give time to negotiations,” Borrell said.
Rouhani was quoted in a statement as telling Borrell that Iran “was ready ... to cooperate with the European Union to resolve problems” facing the deal.
Tehran is also ready to “return to the commitments” when the other parties “uphold their commitments,” the statement added.
Borrell last month said that a joint commission overseeing the deal, including representatives of all the countries involved, would meet this month, without giving a precise date.
Washington has accused Tehran of seeking a nuclear weapon, which Iran has always denied.
The US withdrawal from the deal and its reimposition of biting sanctions deprived Iran of keenly awaited economic benefits.
The renewed US sanctions have almost entirely isolated Iran from the international financial system, driven away oil buyers and plunged the country into a severe recession.
Under the deal struck in Vienna, Iran agreed to drastically reduce its nuclear activities and to submit to a tailor-made inspection regime by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
However, since May last year Iran has progressively scaled back its commitments in response to the US sanctions and Europe’s inability to circumvent them.
Iran is now producing uranium enriched beyond the 3.67 percent set by the agreement and no longer adheres to a limit of 300kg imposed on its enriched uranium stocks.
It has also resumed research and development that was restricted under the deal.
Tehran has said that all its moves away from the agreement are reversible.
Rouhani on Monday told Borrell that for now Iran would continue to submit to inspections.
The top EU diplomat insisted in Tehran that the UN atomic energy agency “is the only one who can witness, who can certify” the state of Iran’s nuclear development.
“I’ve asked the Iranian authorities, and I think they agree, we have to continue with the survey of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Borrell said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was