TEHRAN: Iran will hold nuclear talks with France, Britain and Germany on January 13 in Switzerland, local media reported on Wednesday, quoting a foreign ministry official.

“The new round of talks between Iran and three European countries will be held in Geneva on Jan 13,” said Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, according to ISNA news agency.

He added the talks were only “consultations, not negotiations.” The three European countries had on Dec 17 accused Iran of growing its stockpile of high-enriched uranium to “unprecedented levels” without “any credible civilian justification.”

They also raised the possibility of restoring sanctions against Iran to keep it from developing its nuclear programme.

Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said his country was “ready for fair and honorable negotiations” with the West. “In exchange (for the lifting of sanctions), we create more confidence in the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme,” he was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Tasnim news agency.

“If the other party does not like this path, it is natural that we follow our own path, as we have done in recent years,” added the foreign minister.

Iran has in recent years increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium such that it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 per cent, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said. That level is well on the way to the 90pc required for an atomic bomb.

Iran held talks about its disputed nuclear programme in November, 2024 with Britain, France and Germany.

Those discussions, the first since the US election, came after Tehran was angered by a European-backed resolution that accused Iran of poor cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambition of developing nuclear weapons capability. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, has long issued a religious decree, or fatwa, prohibiting atomic weapons.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2025