Representatives from the foreign ministries of the UK, France and Germany will conduct talks in parallel to the currently stalled negotiations between Tehran and Washington
July 21, 2025 13:49
Iran will hold nuclear talks with Britain, France and Germany, also known as the E3 nations, on Friday in Istanbul, a spokesperson for Tehran's Foreign Ministry announced this morning.
"The meeting between Iran, Britain, France and Germany will take place at the deputy foreign minister level," ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
The statement came after foreign ministers of the E3 group spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi for the first time since last month's 12-day war between Israel and the Islamic Republic, which saw Jerusalem and the US attack the country's nuclear facilities.
Araghchi, in the phone call on Thursday night, told his counterparts that "any new round of talks is only possible when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial nuclear deal”.
He added: "If the EU/E3 want to have a role, they should act responsibly, and put aside the worn-out policies of threat and pressure, including the 'snapback' for which they lack absolutely no moral and legal ground."
“Snapback” refers to the mechanism included in the original Iran nuclear deal in 2015, which allowed European signatories to reimpose harsh economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic if it breached uranium enrichment limits.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the E3 foreign ministers agreed in a phone call on July 14 that they would give Tehran until the end of August to reach a new deal before activating snapback, Israel’s Channel 12 News channel reported last week.
However, Araghchi argued on Sunday that London, Paris and Berlin "relinquished their role as 'Participants'" in the 2015 agreement, making any attempt to impose snapback sanctions on Iran "null and void".
He announced on X that he sent a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres outlining how the E3 "reneged on their commitments and actively contributed to the so-called US 'maximum pressure' policy, and recently, the military aggression against our people too."
"The E3 cannot and should not be allowed to undermine the credibility of the UN Security Council by abusing a Resolution to which they themselves have not been committed," Iran's top diplomat stated.
Reimposition of UN sanctions will trigger an "appropriate and proportionate response," the Iranian regime warned last week.
"The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from the Islamic Republic of Iran," a spokesperson told reporters, per Reuters.
Meanwhile, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned on July 16 that Tehran is "ready" to respond to any renewed military action against it and has capabilities to deal "even bigger blows" to the US and others.
The Islamic Republic "not only does not fear America – it instills fear in it," Khamenei declared, speaking to the country's judiciary officials in just his second public appearance since the war with Israel.
"Although we consider the Zionist regime a cancer and the US a criminal due to its support of that regime, we did not seek war," he said. "Yet whenever the enemy attacked, our response was forceful and firm."
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