Less than two months before Donald Trump takes office again, Iran was scheduled to discuss its nuclear program with Britain, France, and Germany in Geneva on Friday.
The nations’ foreign ministries have not disclosed much about the topics of the meeting or even the location of the discussions, which are cloaked in secrecy.
Iran will be represented in Friday’s negotiations by Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iranian diplomat and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s political deputy. The discussions come after a September meeting in New York.
Enrique Mora, the deputy secretary general of the European Union’s foreign affairs branch, met with Takht-Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, the deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, on Thursday to lay the foundation.
Mora stated on X that they had a “frank exchange… on 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” .
The intense animosity between Israel and Iran and its allies in the Middle East is the backdrop for Friday’s conference.
Following Araghchi’s warning that Iran could lift its embargo on developing a nuclear bomb if Western sanctions are reinstated, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Thursday that Israel would do “everything” to prevent Tehran from obtaining one.
The backdrop of Friday’s negotiations is becoming even more bleak as a result of the West’s charge that Tehran is providing Russia with explosive drones for its conflict in Ukraine.
Additionally, Trump, who throughout his first term pushed for “maximum pressure” against Iran, returns to the White House on January 20.
