Dubai: European officials told Iran on Wednesday it had yet to take the actions needed to stop the return of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme, warning time was running out.
The comments from the German Foreign Ministry and the European Union came after a call Iran had Wednesday with representatives of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.
“The window for finding a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear issue is closing really fast,” Kallas warned in a statement. “Iran must show credible steps towards addressing the demands of France, (the) UK and Germany, and this means demonstrating full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and allowing inspections of all nuclear sites without delay.” The German Foreign Ministry separately wrote on the social platform X that “Iran has yet to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary to” stop the reimposition of UN sanctions.
In a statement issued hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi again asserted that the reimposition of UN sanctions was “lacking any legal or logical justification”. He also pointed to the fact that Iran and the IAEA earlier reached a deal mediated by Egypt to grant the UN watchdog access to all Iranian nuclear sites and for Tehran to report on the whereabouts of all its nuclear material.