Representatives from Iran met in Geneva this week with officials from Germany, France and the U.K., the so-called E3 countries, to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program, media reported.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said on the website X that conversations with the E3 countries were “serious, frank, and constructive.”
Iranian state media, Tehran Times, said both sides addressed sanctions, nuclear issues, and European support for Gaza.
“Against a challenging context, we discussed concerns and reiterated our commitment to a diplomatic solution,” the German Foreign Office said on X. “We agreed to continue our dialogue.”
According to MSN, the meetings were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 13-14. The meetings come after French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks at a French foreign policy conference that Iran’s uranium enrichment was close to the “point of no return,” MSN said.
Iran denounced Macron’s comments and Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Macron’s statement was “baseless” and “deceitful.”
The E3 countries all played a role in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, which President Donald Trump (R) pulled the U.S. out of in 2018. The E3 has also issued statements condemning Iran’s nuclear program, the most recent one being in December.
“We strongly urge Iran to reverse these steps, and to immediately halt its nuclear escalation,” the statement said, referring to how Iran activated new uranium-enriching centrifuges in response to a condemning statement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The E3 and Iran had secret talks on the nuclear deal in December, which the Iranian foreign ministry said was “progressive” in a statement, according to the state operated Islamic Republic News Agency.
According to the IAEA, Iran now has an increasing stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium, multiple times the 3.67% limit granted by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and not far from the 90% needed to build a nuclear weapon.
