Iran has rejected the European Union’s offer to hold direct nuclear talks with the United States, senior diplomats say, risking further tensions between Tehran and Western capitals.
Two senior Western diplomats have said Iran has ruled out a meeting in Europe for now, saying it wants a guarantee that the US will lift some sanctions after the meeting.
The United States has said it will participate in talks the EU hopes to host in the coming days. However, Washington has refused to grant sanctions exemption before face-to-face negotiations with Iran take place.
Diplomats said the rejection of Iran did not kill all hopes of direct negotiations in the coming months and that Tehran’s move could be an attempt to gain leverage in future talks. These talks could begin even before the Iranian New Year at the end of March.
However, Iran’s move could exacerbate tensions in the coming days.
A State Department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
At stake are the EU’s efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal from which the Trump administration withdrew and whose limits were subsequently violated by Iran. Both the Biden administration and Iran say they want to re-establish the agreement, but the two sides have been hampered by a debate on which they should move first.
As the dispute worsens, France, Britain and Germany are working on a resolution they plan to present to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board next week, which would censure Iran for the latest steps to expand its nuclear activities and its failure to cooperate with the agency’s investigation into its nuclear activity.
Iran has warned that if the censorship measure continues, it could end an agreement reached earlier this month with the IAEA, which would allow most international inspections to continue. Iran has previously said it will significantly reduce inspectors’ access to its nuclear activities, but has slowed the move after IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi visited Tehran.
If Iran continues this threat, it would significantly reduce international oversight of Iran’s nuclear activity, which Mr Grossi said would destroy the agency’s ability to control Iran’s nuclear program.
The Biden administration has said it wants to return to the nuclear deal, but will not suspend sanctions on Iran until Tehran reverses the many steps it has taken to violate the 2015 nuclear deal.
European diplomats have warned that if Iran stays away from talks, which the EU hopes to hold next week, it could leave Tehran more diplomatically isolated. A senior European diplomat said Iran was still afraid to go home empty-handed following a meeting with the United States, which could have sparked a major backlash in Iran.
Write to Laurence Norman at [email protected] and Michael R. Gordon at [email protected]
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