EU Borrell Says Iran Wants To Meet Officials In Brussels Over Nuclear Deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday that Iran wanted to meet in Brussels with EU officials who coordinate indirect talks between the United States and Iran with other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Borrell told reporters in Washington he was ready to meet with the Iranians, but couldn’t say when it might happen.

“I am ready to receive them, if necessary,” Borrell said, adding that he did not think that talks in Brussels were absolutely necessary but that he had to be prepared to be somewhat “patient on this matter, because we cannot afford to fail “. “

EU political director Enrique Mora, chief coordinator of the talks, was in Tehran on Thursday to meet with members of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, four months after talks between Iran and world powers broke down.

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has so far refused to resume indirect talks with the United States in Vienna on both sides reverting to respect for the deal, under which Iran has limited its nuclear program in exchange for a easing of economic sanctions.

Former US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions against Iran. Since then, Tehran has replenished its stocks of enriched uranium, refined it to higher purity levels, and installed advanced centrifuges to speed up the enrichment process.

“Time is running out,” Borrell said, saying Iran’s new government has had enough time to study the case and educate its negotiating team.

“It’s time to get back to the negotiating table. And I don’t want to think about plans B because no … Plan B that I could imagine would be a good one.”

Western diplomats said they feared Tehran’s new negotiating team – led by a president known to be a hard-line anti-Western supporter, unlike his pragmatic predecessor – might make new demands beyond the scope of this. which had already been agreed.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; editing by Paul Simao)