TEHRAN: Iran will hold nuclear talks with France, Britain and Germany on January 13 in Switzerland, local media reported on Wednesday, citing a Foreign Ministry official.
“The new round of talks between Iran and three European countries will be held in Geneva on January 13,” said Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, according to ISNA news agency.
He added that the talks were only “consultations, not negotiations.” The three European countries accused Iran on December 17 of increasing its reserves of highly enriched uranium to “unprecedented levels” without “any credible civil justification.”
They also raised the possibility of reestablishing sanctions against Iran to prevent it from developing its nuclear program.
Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said his country was “ready for fair and honorable negotiations” with the West. “In exchange (for the lifting of sanctions), we created more confidence in the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program,” the Tasnim news agency said on Wednesday.
“If the other party does not like this path, it is natural that we follow ours, as we have done in recent years,” added the Foreign Minister.
In recent years, Iran has increased its production of enriched uranium to such an extent that it is the only non-nuclear weapon state that possesses 60 percent enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said. That level is on track to the 90% required for an atomic bomb.
Iran held talks on its controversial nuclear program in November 2024 with Britain, France and Germany.
Those discussions, the first since the U.S. election, came after Tehran was angered by a European-backed resolution accusing Iran of poor cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Iran insists on its right to peaceful nuclear energy and has consistently denied any ambition to develop nuclear weapons capabilities. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state affairs, has long issued a religious decree, or fatwa, banning atomic weapons.
Published in Amanecer, January 2, 2025.
