Iranian and European ministers made little progress in talks yesterday aimed at preventing international sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme being reimposed at the end of this month, two European and one Iranian diplomats said.
Britain, France and Germany, the so-called E3, launched a 30-day process at the end of August to reimpose UN sanctions. They set conditions for Tehran to meet during September to convince them to delay the “snapback mechanism”.
The offer by the E3 to put off the snapback for up to six months to enable serious negotiations is conditional on Iran restoring access for UN nuclear inspectors – who would also seek to account for Iran’s large stock of enriched uranium – and engaging in talks with the US.
The status of Iran’s enriched uranium stocks has been unknown since Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June. Yesterday’s phone call between the E3 foreign ministers, the European Union foreign policy chief and their Iranian counterpart followed an agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency last week on resuming co-operation, including, in principle, the inspection of nuclear sites.
Several Western diplomats have said, however, that the accord is not detailed enough, sets no timeframe and leaves the door open for Iran to continue stonewalling.
There has also been no indication of a willingness from Iran to resume talks with Washington.
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