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EU and Iran to Continue Talks on Nuclear Impasse in Brussels

EU in Iran to Jumpstart Nuclear Talks as U.S. Warns on Time

Iranian and European Union diplomats ended a meeting on the nuclear deal without setting a timeline for the resumption of negotiations with the U.S., committing only to further talks in Brussels in the coming days.

Enrique Mora, the EU official who mediated six rounds of indirect negotiations between Iran and the U.S. with the help of Russia and China, spent several hours in a meeting with Iran’s new Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran. 

Bagheri Kani said that Iran has “serious doubts” about Washington’s willingness to commit to the terms of the deal that former President Donald Trump abandoned three years ago, adding that Europe also has to show that it can fully implement the accord. 

It’s unclear whether other parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will be involved in the Brussels meetings or when precisely they will take place. Earlier on Thursday European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told reporters there was “urgency” to Iran resuming the broader talks with world powers “soon”. 

The U.S., U.K., France and Germany have been urging Iran to return to the negotiating table after talks stalled in June following the election of hardline President Ebrahim Raisi. Trump’s exit in 2018 triggered a security crisis in the Persian Gulf and led Tehran to significantly expand its nuclear activity in response.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Iran the “runway is getting shorter” to resume the talks, but said he still favored diplomacy as the best way to resolve their standoff.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.