Iran nuclear talks reopened

The EU’s foreign policy leader, Josep Borrell, claimed renewed discussions in Tehran have restored stalled negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Enrique Mora’s trip to help restore the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and international powers went “better than planned,” Borrell said.

“The conversations had stagnated and have now been reopened,” Borrell told reporters in Germany.

“A final deal is likely.”

This week Mora met with Iran’s senior negotiator Ali Bagheri in Tehran.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s emir met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday to promote development.

Tehran has consistently denied aiming to construct a nuclear bomb, but the 2015 deal relieved sanctions for limitations on its nuclear programme.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was put on life support in 2018 after then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew and imposed sanctions.

So Iran backtracked on its own obligations.

Mora played a crucial role in a year of on-off discussions in Vienna, which were renewed after Trump left office.

Tehran’s demand that the US remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a terrorist list has been a major stumbling block in the talks.

Borrell claimed “differences over the Revolutionary Guards” had slowed development for two months.

He added Mora had told Tehran that “we couldn’t go on like this”.

“The answer is yes,” Borrell responded. “These issues take time to resolve. Things were obstructed and now they’re unblocked.”

“The situation is over,” Borrell said, referring to Mora’s tweet claiming German police temporarily detained him at Frankfurt Airport.

Just before leaving for Brussels, Mora tweeted he had been “detained by the German police.”

“No explanation. The passport of a Spanish diplomat on an official EU mission,” he wrote.”I’m still waiting for an explanation for what appears to be a breach of the Vienna Convention.”

The German police had no quick comment.