Geneva: Iran’s foreign minister was holding talks with top European diplomats in Geneva on Friday about the crisis that centres on concerns about his country’s nuclear programme, a week after the long-simmering dispute erupted into war between Israel and Iran.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived at a hotel in the Swiss city for a meeting with his counterparts from France, Germany and the UK and the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
It is the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict.
Ahead of the meeting, Araghchi said his country has “nothing to discuss” with the United States as long as Israel continues its strikes on Iran, but is open to “dialogue” with others, though not negotiations. The war has seen Israeli airstrikes target Iranian nuclear and military sites and Tehran firing back.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that “a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution.” He travelled to Geneva after meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America’s “bunker-buster” bombs.
He said Wednesday that he’ll decide within two weeks whether the US military will get directly involved in the war given the “substantial chance” for renewed negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the European diplomats would make a “comprehensive, diplomatic and technical offer of negotiation” to Iran.