Iran announced on Sunday that it would begin nuclear negotiations with the three European nations that started the resolution of censure against it, which was approved by the UN’s atomic watchdog, in the next few days.
The deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom will meet on Friday, according to foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, who did not provide a location.
“A range of regional and international issues and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue, will be discussed,” the spokesman said in a foreign ministry statement.
Baghaei described the upcoming meeting as a continuation of talks held with the countries in September on the sidelines of the annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
A resolution condemning Iran for what it described as a lack of collaboration was adopted Thursday by the 35-nation board of governors of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The action was taken at a time when tensions were high due to Iran’s atomic program, which Tehran has denied on numerous occasions but which detractors believe is intended to create a nuclear weapon.
Iran declared it was introducing a “series of new and advanced centrifuges” in response to the resolution.
By spinning uranium into gas at extremely high speeds, centrifuges enrich it and increase the amount of fissile isotope material (U-235).
“We will substantially increase the enrichment capacity with the utilisation of different types of advanced machines,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran’s atomic energy organisation spokesman, told state TV.
However, the nation also declared that it would keep up its “technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA.”
Iran complied with the IAEA’s request to limit its sensitive store of nearly weapons-grade uranium enriched up to 60% purity during Rafael Grossi’s latest visit to Tehran.
