Iran said Friday its foreign minister spoke by phone with his French, German and British counterparts to avoid the reimposition of U.N. sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program, just days ahead of a European deadline, AP reports.
The call by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came as the three countries threatened to invoke the “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by month’s end, allowing any party to reimpose sanctions if they find Iran out of compliance with requirements such as international monitoring of its nuclear program.
The Europeans’ concern over the Iranian program, which had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June saw its atomic sites bombed, has only grown since Tehran cut off all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the conflict’s wake.
That has left the international community further blinded to Iran’s program — as well as the status of its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Iran has long insisted its program is peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed nation enriching uranium at that level. The U.S., the IAEA and others say Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003.
After the call, a statement released on Araghchi’s behalf via Telegram said he criticized the countries’ “legal and moral qualifications” to threaten to reinstate the sanctions, but insisted talks would continue.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, just as it acts authoritatively in self defense, has never abandoned the path of diplomacy and is ready for any diplomatic solution that guarantees the rights and interests of the Iranian people,” the statement said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed on the social platform X that the talks took place, and said another round of discussions would happen next week.
“We have just made an important call to our Iranian counterpart regarding the nuclear program and the sanctions against Iran that we are preparing to reapply,” he said. “Time is running out.”
