Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Wednesday that a new round of nuclear talks with Germany, France, and the United Kingdom is likely to take place in Turkey on Friday.
"I believe the next series of negotiations at the deputy foreign minister level should occur Friday in Istanbul," he told journalists on the sidelines of the weekly cabinet meeting in Tehran.
Several French diplomatic sources confirmed to AFP that discussions will indeed happen on Friday in Istanbul, involving political directors.
A meeting between Iran and the three European countries was initially planned for 2 May but was postponed.
France, Germany, and the UK, along with China and Russia, are parties to the 2015 agreement with Iran, intended to regulate Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
This agreement was effectively nullified, following the United States' unilateral decision to withdraw three years later during Donald Trump’s first presidency.
In an article published Sunday on the French weekly Le Point’s website, Araghchi warned European countries against their "confrontational strategy."
At the end of April, his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, asserted that the E3 group (Germany, France, UK) would not hesitate "even for a second" to reimpose sanctions on Tehran if Iranian nuclear developments threatened European security.
Iran and the United States, which have had no formal diplomatic relations since 1980, have engaged in four rounds of mediated talks in Oman since 12 April.
These talks aim to reach a new agreement designed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—an aim Tehran has consistently denied—while lifting sanctions that cripple its economy.
