EU ‘optimistic’ about fresh talks on Iran nuclear deal: top envoy

The European Union’s top
diplomat Josep Borrell has said he hopes EU and Iranian
diplomats would meet soon to try and revive nuclear talks.

“You never know, I am more optimistic today than yesterday,” Borrell said on Monday.

But he declined to confirm reports of a meeting in Brussels on
Thursday.

Bloomberg News reported that Iran’s foreign minister gave
the date on Sunday, citing an Iranian lawmaker. 

A senior EU
official last week confirmed that meetings were planned in
Brussels, rather than Vienna, but gave no date. 

“No confirmation yet, but things are getting better and I hope we will have preparatory meetings in Brussels in the days to come,” Borrell said in Luxembourg as he arrived for an EU foreign ministers meeting.

EU political director Enrique Mora, the chief coordinator
for the talks, was in Tehran last Thursday to meet members of
Iran’s nuclear-negotiating team, four months after discussions
broke off between Iran and world powers.

READ MORE: Blinken, Israeli FM warn Iran against developing nuclear weapons

Iran ready for talks

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has so far refused to resume
indirect talks with the United States in Vienna on both sides
returning to compliance with the deal, under which Iran curbed
its nuclear programme in return for economic sanctions relief.

But after Mora’s visit, Iran’s foreign ministry said it
would hold talks in the coming days with the EU in Brussels.

Western diplomats have said they are concerned Tehran’s new
negotiating team – under a president known as an anti-Western
hardliner, unlike his pragmatist predecessor – may make new
demands beyond the scope of what had already been agreed.

Iran has long denied any ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.

READ MORE: Iran ready for nuclear talks, but not under western ‘pressure’