Iran, European countries set to hold nuclear talks ahead of Trump’s return to office
Negotiatiors said aiming to build momentum before expected resumption of US president-elect’s ‘maximum pressure’ policy; Netanyahu pledges to do ‘everything’ to keep Tehran from bomb
European and Iranian diplomats were set to meet Friday to discuss whether they could engage in serious talks in the coming weeks to defuse tensions in the region, including over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The meetings in the Swiss city of Geneva — where world powers and Iran achieved a first breakthrough in nuclear talks more than a decade ago before reaching a deal in 2015 — came as the United Nations’ nuclear agency said Tehran had informed it of plans to install some 6,000 new centrifuges to enrich uranium.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister and senior nuclear negotiator Majid Takhteravanchi was set to meet Friday with top diplomats from Britain, Germany and France, the group of countries known as the E3. Laying the groundwork on Thursday, Takhteravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, met with Enrique Mora, deputy secretary general of the European Union’s foreign affairs arm.
In a post on X, Mora said that the “frank exchange” dealt with “Iran’s military support to Russia that has to stop, the nuclear issue that needs a diplomatic solution, regional tensions (important to avoid further escalation from all sides) and human rights.”
After the talks, Gharibabadi, also on X, on Friday said he and Takhteravanchi reaffirmed to Mora “that EU should abandon its self-centered and irresponsible behavior” on a range of issues including the war in Ukraine and the Iranian nuclear issue.
Gharibabadi charged that the EU’s “complicit behavior towards the ongoing genocide in Gaza” leaves it without moral authority to “preach” on human rights.
Israel vociferously denies accusations of genocide, has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities, and stresses that Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as human shields in the ongoing war in Gaza, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The meetings in Geneva are the first since the United States presidential election earlier this month and aim to see whether any momentum can be built ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20. The US president-elect, who pulled Washington out of the 2015 deal during his first term, has reportedly vowed to renew his “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that his country, which says it is nominally opposed to nuclear weapons, could change course if sanctions are reintroduced. Hours later in a television interview, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would do “everything” to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Tehran is openly committed to Israel’s destruction and spearheads a network of regional proxies that have waged war on Israel for over a year, triggered by the Hamas terror group’s deadly onslaught on October 7, 2023.
Ahead of the meetings with the E3 countries, Iran said Thursday that it had injected uranium gas into newly activated centrifuges — a necessary step toward a nuclear bomb.
The move apparently came in response to the condemnation of Iran at the United Nations’ atomic energy watchdog last week. The 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted on November 21 to adopt the resolution, proposed by the US and E3 countries, that tasked the body with preparing a “comprehensive” report on Iran’s nuclear activities by the spring of 2025 amid limited, last-ditch Iranian pledges to curb uranium enrichment.
According to an IAEA report seen by AFP, “Iran informed the Agency that it intended to feed” around 6,000 centrifuges at its sites in Fordo and Natanz to enrich uranium to up to five percent — higher than the 3.67% limit Tehran had agreed to in 2015.
Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but according to the IAEA, it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium to 60%.
The IAEA resolution against Iran makes this week’s Geneva meetings more of a brainstorming session focused on their mutual concerns over how Trump will handle the dossier, diplomats said.
European, Israeli and regional diplomats say Trump’s planned administration — which includes notable Iran hawks such as his Secretary of State pick Marco Rubio — aims to cripple Tehran economically just like he attempted to do during his first presidency.
They also say he may seek a sort of grand bargain involving regional players to resolve the multitude of crises in the region.
The E3, the European parties to the 2015 deal, has adopted a tougher stance on Iran in recent months, notably since Tehran ramped up military support to Russia for its war in Ukraine. However, Iran has always insisted that it wanted to maintain a policy of pressure and dialogue.
Three Iranian officials said Tehran’s primary objective would be finding ways to secure the “lifting of sanctions” imposed since 2018 after then-president Trump reneged on the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.
“The establishment has decided to overcome the nuclear impasse… The goal is to use the Geneva meeting to find common ground and if we progress, Washington could join at a later stage,” said one of the three officials.
Since 2018, Iran has accelerated its nuclear program while limiting the IAEA’s ability to monitor it.
“There isn’t going to be an agreement until Trump takes office or any serious talks about the contours of a deal,” said Kelsey Davenport, director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association advocacy group.
“But the Europeans should press Iran about what aspects of its nuclear program it’s willing to negotiate on and what security conditions in the region will need to shift for Iran to make nuclear concessions.”
A European official said the primary aim was to try to agree on a timeline and framework to embark on good-faith talks so that Iran would make a clear commitment to begin negotiating something concrete before Trump arrives.
While Trump’s return to power leaves many questions open, four European diplomats said the E3 countries felt it was vital to engage now because time was running out.
Officials from both sides say the nuclear issue is just one aspect of the talks that will also address Tehran’s military relationship with Russia and its regional role as fears mount that tensions between Iran and arch-rival Israel could ignite an all-out war. The region is already volatile due to ongoing attacks on Israel by Iran’s proxies and Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Iran.
Announcing a ceasefire in Lebanon this week, Netanyahu said the decision was made in part to turn Israel’s focus to Iran.
Iran fired its first-ever missile barrage at Israel in April in retaliation to an alleged Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic installation in Damascus that killed top Iranian generals. After Iran’s second attack, in October, Israel struck military facilities across Iran, reportedly damaging a component of Iran’s nuclear program.
