Josep Borrell in Tehran to reduce escalation
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Roshan Amiri
- . February 5, 2020
- . Update: February 22, 2020 6:08 am
Foreign Minister of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, held talks in Tehran on Monday to reduce escalation, in a climate of renewed international tension on the Iranian nuclear issue.
This visit also comes after tension between the United States and Iran peaked in January, when the two sides reached World War II for the second time in seven months after Washington killed the commander of Quds Revolutionaries Guards Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Borell met with Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Zarif and Borell discussed “the situation in the Persian Gulf and the need to reduce regional tensions”, stressing the terrible consequences for the region and the world for the recent American plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iranian international nuclear deal and recent events in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
EU Foreign Minister will also meet with Prime Minister Shura Ali Larijani to reduce tension and seek possible political solutions to the current crisis.
Borrell expressed the European Union’s determination to protect the international agreement on the Iranian nuclear program concluded in 2015 in Vienna, an EU statement said.
During a press conference on Monday morning, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi described the visit as a mission. “I hope the talks with Iranian officials will allow Europeans to understand the current situation and demonstrate goodwill by taking serious measures”, Mousavi added.
This visit comes in a new period of tension between Iran and Westerners over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Borrell announced on January 24 that countries that signed the international nuclear deal concluded in Vienna in 2015 have agreed to hold a February’ reconciliation meeting in order to preserve the deal at risk of collapse since the United States withdrew unilaterally from it in 2018.
The agreement between the Islamic Republic and the 5 + 1 group (United States, China, Russia, France, Great Britain, and Germany) offers Iran to lift part of the international sanctions that stifle its economy, in exchange for guarantees aimed to demonstrate the exclusively civil nature of its nuclear program.To see more about Arab News Latest, Arab Politics News follow us.
