A senior Iranian official said on Saturday that proposals put forward by European powers at talks in Geneva about his country’s nuclear programme were “unrealistic”, suggesting that if they stuck to them it would be difficult to reach an accord. There were few signs of progress on Friday after the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, plus the EU met their Iranian counterpart in a bid to prevent the conflict between Israel and Iran from escalating.
“The discussions and proposals made by the Europeans in Geneva were unrealistic. Insisting on these positions will not bring Iran and Europe closer to an agreement,” the senior official told Reuters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.
“In any case, Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting,” the official said.
Both sides signalled on Friday their readiness to keep talking, although no new date was set.
European diplomats said Friday’s talks had been aimed at testing Tehran’s willingness to negotiate a new nuclear deal despite there being no obvious prospect of Israel halting its attacks soon.
While neither side disclosed details of what was put forward, two European diplomats said the E3 did not believe that Israel would accept a ceasefire in the near term and that it would be difficult for Iran and the U.S. to resume negotiations.
They said the idea was to begin a parallel negotiating track, initially without the U.S., on a new deal that would involve tougher inspections, including potentially of Iran’s ballistic missile programme, while allowing Tehran some notional uranium enrichment capacity.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday spoke with his Iranian counterpart and said the two sides had agreed to accelerate negotiations, although he insisted it was up to Iran “to provide every assurance that its intentions are peaceful.”
Despite some European ministers suggesting on Friday that Iran was more ready to talk about issues beyond the nuclear programme, the senior official dismissed the possibility of negotiating its defensive capabilities, including its missile programme, and repeated that the idea of zero enrichment of uranium was a dead end.
“Iran welcomes diplomacy but not under the shadow of war,” the official said.
(Writing and additional reporting by John Irish. Editing by Mark Potter and Hugh Lawson)