The leaders of the United States, Germany, France and Britain will gather on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Rome later on October 30 to discuss the way forward in talks with Iran over its nuclear activities.
Iran’s talks with six world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal are slated to resume by the end of November, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said earlier this week. The exact date has not been announced yet.
U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron, who are all attending the G20 summit, will meet separately to discuss the issue.
A senior U.S. administration official told reporters that the meeting was Merkel’s initiative and would give the leaders an opportunity to go over the topic ahead of a critical period coming up.
“This is going to be a serious opportunity to check signals as we head into a really vital period” on this issue, “Reuters quoted the official as saying.
The EU and world powers have been struggling to revive the talks, which have been on hold since Iran’s presidential election in June that brought hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi to power.
Former President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the international accord in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions, despite Iran’s compliance with the deal. In response, Tehran has gradually breached limits imposed by the pact, including on uranium enrichment, refining it to higher purity, and installing advanced centrifuges.
President Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the deal if Iran returns to full compliance. But six rounds of indirect talks with Iran in Vienna that began in April failed to reach agreement.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on October 28 that the U.S. was still trying to determine whether Iran was serious about the negotiations.
“It’s not entirely clear to me yet whether the Iranians are prepared to return to talks,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden flew to Rome for the Group of 20 summit. “We have heard positive signals that they are, but I think we have to wait and see when and whether they actually show up at the negotiating table.”
