Iran, European powers hold nuclear talks in Turkiye

The Hindu

16-05-2025

Iran met with European powers on Friday to discuss its nuclear negotiations with Washington, while U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat unless the Iranians "move quickly" towards a deal.
The meeting in Istanbul followed remarks by Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warning of "irreversible" consequences if Britain, France and Germany move to reimpose United Nations sanctions that were lifted under a landmark 2015 agreement.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who attended the talks in the Turkish city, said in a post on X: "We exchanged views and discussed the latest status of the indirect nuclear negotiations and the lifting of sanctions."
Mr. Gharibabadi added that, if necessary, Tehran would meet again with the so-called E3 — the European parties to the 2015 deal along with China, Russia and the United States — to continue discussions, after several meetings since last year.
In a post on X, the U.K. Foreign Office's political director, Christian Turner, said the parties reaffirmed their "commitment to dialogue, welcomed ongoing U.S./Iran talks, and given urgency, agreed to meet again.".
Mr. Trump had effectively torpedoed the deal during his first term, by unilaterally abandoning it in 2018 and reimposing sanctions on Iran's banking sector and oil exports.
A year later, Iran responded by rolling back its own commitments under the deal, which provided relief from sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities.
Speaking Friday in Abu Dhabi, Trump said that his administration had handed Iran a proposal for a new agreement, after four rounds of negotiations in recent weeks.
"They know they have to move quickly or something bad is going to happen," Trump said.
The Oman-mediated Iran-US talks were the highest-level contact between the two foes since Washington abandoned the nuclear accord.
Araghchi had earlier denied a report about a draft agreement, saying "we have not been given anything".
'Sustain diplomacy'
The three European powers have been weighing whether to trigger the 2015 deal's "snapback" mechanism, which would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance — an option that expires in October.
Such a stance "risks provoking a global nuclear proliferation crisis that would primarily affect Europeans themselves", Iran's top diplomat has warned.
However, writing in the French weekly Le Point, he also noted that Tehran was "ready to turn the page" in its relations with Europe.
Mr. Gharibabadi said after Friday's meeting that "Iran and the three European countries are determined to sustain and make optimal use of diplomacy".
Tehran's official IRNA news agency said that the European Union's deputy secretary-general for political affairs, Olof Skoog, "is scheduled to meet with the Iranian delegation" later on Friday.
A U.S. official said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on Friday with the French, British and German national security advisers in Istanbul for talks on Iran and Ukraine.
Mr. Araghchi has said that the talks with the Europeans and the United States were proceeding on separate track.
China, which held recent talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, said ahead of Friday's talks that it remained "committed to promoting a political and diplomatic settlement of the Iran issue".
Beijing also "valued Iran's commitment to not develop nuclear weapons", according to Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian.
'Getting close'
Speaking on a visit to Qatar Thursday, Mr. Trump said the United States was "getting close" to a deal with Iran that would avert military action.
"We're not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran," he said.
Since returning to office, Mr. Trump has revived his "maximum pressure" policy on Tehran, backing nuclear diplomacy but warning of military action if it fails.
Mr. Trump has said he presented Iran's leadership with an "olive branch", adding that it was an offer that would not last forever.
He further threatened to impose "massive maximum pressure", including driving Iranian oil exports to zero if talks failed.
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60%, far above the 3.67% limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90% needed for a nuclear warhead.
Tehran insists its right to continue enriching uranium for peaceful purposes is "non-negotiable" but says it would be open to temporary restrictions on how much uranium it enriches and to what level.
On Wednesday, Iran's atomic energy agency chief Mohammad Eslami reiterated that Tehran "does not seek nuclear militarisation", adding that enrichment was under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.
"The dismantling of enrichment is not accepted by Iran," he stressed.