Europeans see a 'window of opportunity' for diplomacy as they meet Iran's top diplomat
GENEVA (AP) — Iran's foreign minister plans to meet in Geneva on Friday with leading European counterparts, who hope to open a window for a diplomatic solution to the week-old military conflict that has seen Israeli airstrikes target Iranian nuclear and military sites and Tehran firing back.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who will meet Iran's Abbas Araghchi together with his French and German counterparts and the European Union's foreign policy chief, said that 'a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution.'
The talks will be the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict.
Lammy is traveling to Geneva after meeting in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America's 'bunker-buster' bombs. He said Wednesday that he'll decide within two weeks whether the U.S. military will get directly involved in the war given the 'substantial chance' for renewed negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.
'Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one,' Lammy said.
Israel says it launched its airstrike campaign last week to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. Iran and the United States had been negotiating over the possibility of a new diplomatic deal over Tehran's program, though Trump has said Israel's campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks.
Iran's supreme leader rejectedU.S. calls for surrender Wednesday and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause 'irreparable damage to them.'
Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though it was the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
The three European countries, commonly referred to as the E3, played an important role in the negotiations over the original 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. But they have repeatedly threatened to reinstate sanctions that were lifted under the deal if Iran does not improve its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Germany's foreign minister acknowledged that years of efforts to relieve concerns about the possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon haven't succeeded, but said it's worth talking now.
'It is our commitment once again to undertake a very intensive attempt to dissuade Iran permanently from pursuing such plans,' Johann Wadephul said in a podcast released by broadcaster MDR on Friday. 'If there is serious and transparent readiness by Iran to refrain from this, then there is a real chance of preventing a further escalation of this conflict, and for that every conversation makes sense.'
Wadephul said U.S. officials 'not only know that we are conducting these talks but are very much in agreement with us doing so — so I think Iran should now know that it should conduct these talks with a new seriousness and reliability.'
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot spoke by phone with Rubio on Thursday evening.
A French diplomatic official, who was not allowed to speak publicly on the issue, said Barrot detailed the purposes of the Geneva meeting and Rubio 'stressed that the U.S. was ready for direct contact with the Iranians at any time.'
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Geir Moulson in Berlin, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/
Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press
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