{"id":201188,"date":"2025-06-21T00:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/201188\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T00:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:19:11","slug":"iran-eu-officials-hold-talks-at-perilous-moment-for-tehran-and-tel-aviv-israel-iran-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/201188\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran, EU officials hold talks at \u2018perilous\u2019 moment for Tehran and Tel Aviv | Israel-Iran conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s top diplomat has held talks with European foreign ministers in Geneva in an attempt to prevent an escalation in the country\u2019s conflict with Israel, after United States President Donald Trump said he would decide within two weeks whether to join the assault on Tehran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met diplomats, including French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Friday.<\/p>\n

The talks in Switzerland sought to test Tehran\u2019s readiness to negotiate despite there being scant prospect of Israel ceasing its attacks soon, diplomats said.<\/p>\n

Kallas and the ministers from the three European countries \u2013 known as the E3 \u2013 spoke to Araghchi earlier this week and discussed the need to return to the negotiating table and avoid further escalation. At Iran\u2019s suggestion, the two sides agreed to meet face to face. But after hours at the table, negotiations appeared to yield no breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian Foreign Minister has expressed his willingness to continue discussions on the nuclear programme and more broadly on all issues, and we expect Iran to commit to the discussion, including with the United States, to reach a negotiated settlement,\u201d Barrot said after the talks.<\/p>\n

Lammy said the European countries were eager to continue talks with Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don\u2019t see regional escalation of this conflict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Araghchi told reporters that Iran was \u201cprepared\u201d to meet with the European officials again, calling Friday\u2019s talks a \u201cserious, respectful\u201d discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran is ready to consider diplomacy once again \u2013 once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed,\u201d Araghchi said.<\/p>\n

But he also expressed \u201cgrave concern\u201d about the failure of European countries to condemn Israel\u2019s attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n

In an appearance at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva earlier in the day, Araghchi said Israel\u2019s attacks just days before talks with the US were meant to take place were a \u201cbetrayal\u201d of diplomatic efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were supposed to meet with the Americans on 15 June to craft a very promising agreement for peaceful resolution of the issues fabricated over our peaceful nuclear programme,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a betrayal of diplomacy and unprecedented blow to the foundations of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Window\u2019 for diplomacy<\/p>\n

Prior to the talks, French President Emmanuel Macron said European nations were planning to suggest a negotiated solution to end the conflict<\/a>. On Wednesday, he asked his foreign minister to draw up an initiative with \u201cclose partners\u201d to that end.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Paris after talks on the crisis with the Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday, Barrot said the three nations \u201cstand ready to bring our competence and experience on this matter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ready to take part in negotiations aimed at obtaining from Iran a lasting rollback of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Lammy travelled to Switzerland following a visit to Washington, DC, where he met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon \u2026 A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,\u201d Lammy said in an earlier statement.<\/p>\n

Kallas, in coordination with European countries, has insisted that diplomacy remains the best path towards ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n

Israel has repeatedly said its series of strikes is a preemptive move to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Iran denies it is building nuclear weapons and insists that its nuclear programme is peaceful. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it has found no evidence<\/a> that Iran was building such weapons. On Friday, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned at the UN Security Council that continued strikes on nuclear facilities could trigger a regional catastrophe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran \u2018not closing doors of diplomacy\u2019<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s meeting followed comments from Trump<\/a> that there could be new talks in the \u201cnear future\u201d. The US and Iran held five rounds of negotiations over Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme over recent weeks, with a sixth round of talks cancelled after Israel launched attacks on Iran last week.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi said Iranian authorities appear to be trying to send a message that they will not resume negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme while Israel continues its attacks, but they would not close the door on diplomacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians are saying that they\u2019re not going to negotiate while Israeli strikes continue. And that they\u2019re going to strike back and continue with their retaliatory measures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Tehran is \u201cstill trying to send the message that they are not closing the possibility and doors of diplomacy\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from Geneva, said the European countries were trying to get the US and Iran \u201cback from the brink\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a massive diplomatic push to try to prevent this conflict from really escalating even further and engulfing the region potentially,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Trump weighs intervention<\/p>\n

The ramping up of diplomatic efforts comes as Trump said he is weighing military action against Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n

Trump said on Thursday he would make up his mind within two weeks on whether Washington will get directly involved militarily in the conflict, given the \u201csubstantial chance\u201d for renewed diplomatic negotiations over Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

On Friday, he added that the US intelligence community and his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were \u201cwrong\u201d in their recent assessment that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted that Trump would \u201cdo what\u2019s best for America\u201d. \u201cI can tell you that they\u2019re already helping a lot,\u201d he told reporters in Beersheba.<\/p>\n

The talks with Araghchi were held in Geneva, where an initial accord between Iran and world powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for lifting sanctions was struck in 2013, before a comprehensive deal in 2015.<\/p>\n

Trump left the\u00a0Iran nuclear deal<\/a> during his first term as president in 2018, defying last-ditch diplomatic efforts by his European allies to convince him otherwise.<\/p>\n

Negotiations between Iran and the US had been taking place when Israel launched what it called Operation Rising Lion against Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities and ballistic capabilities last Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s top diplomat has held talks with European foreign ministers in Geneva in an attempt to prevent an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,774,837,1167,839,12,8041,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-201188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-israel-iran-conflict","15":"tag-middle-east","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nuclear-weapons","18":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114718491940605253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}