Saudi Arabia, EU Discuss Iran Nuclear Activities In Brussels
Saudi Arabia says its foreign minister has held talks with the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about the Iranian nuclear program and talks for a new deal with Iran.
Saudi Arabia says its foreign minister has held talks with the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about the Iranian nuclear program and talks for a new deal with Iran.
In a statement released Monday, Saudi Foreign Ministry said the Arab Kingdom’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and Borrell exchanged views regarding Iran’s nuclear program and reviewed relations between Riyadh and the European Union.
“The two sides also discussed the latest regional and international developments and the efforts made to strengthen international peace and security,” added the statement.
However, the European Union in its statement did not mention the discussion of Iran’s issue during the talks between the two sides.
“Mr. Borrell, convened a meeting in Brussels with His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Aboul Gheit. They discussed the Middle East Peace Process, the increasing number of victims of violence, conflict and occupation, and the absence of a political perspective for a peaceful solution,” said the EU statement.
Earlier, the US Department of State announced a senior government delegation will travel to Saudi Arabia “to attend meetings which will focus on three priority sets: Integrated Air and Missile Defense and Maritime Security, Iran, and Counterterrorism.”
The US delegation will be led by Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley, added the State Department.
During his weekly press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani referred to a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and United States Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, and said Tehran uses all diplomatic capacities to realize the Islamic Republic’s national interests.
“Some governments have already played a role in this regard in good faith. Some governments are interested in using the capacity of their relations with both sides, and we will always welcome these joint efforts in good faith,” he added. “If the Iraqi government wants to play a role in this area, we take it seriously as the country is our friend, neighbor and brother, and we will use the capacities of the Iraqi government.”
Tehran, facing serious economic and political challenges insists that there is still a chance to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the JCPOA, while the US, which withdrew from the original deal under former US president Donald Trump, has repeatedly announced that it is no longer focused on the deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart on Friday, a day before the Iraqi foreign minister met with Malley. According to the official readout of the meeting by the Iraqi foreign ministry, Hussein and Malley discussed the Iran nuclear talks and the European's attitude toward suspending them. Malley praised Iraq's diplomatic role and the initiatives it launched to ease the tension in the region, the statement added.
Since the current wave of antigovernment protests engulfed Iran in September, the Biden administration has announced that talks to revive the nuclear deal are not their priority anymore. Considering the international outcry over the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on dissent and human rights violations as well as the growing military ties between Tehran and Moscow, including from the US Congress, the prospects of saving the JCPOA is dimmer than ever.
Moreover, Kanaani expressed Iran’s readiness to exchange prisoners with the US in an “unconditional” manner without linking the swap to other issues, complaining that despite Iran’s goodwill, Washington has not taken an encouraging measure in this regard.
On Saturday, Hussein -- accompanied by Central Bank of Iraq Governor Ali al-Allaq -- met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, and many other US officials and business leaders to discuss a host of economic issues. But an urgent issue was how to prevent Iran from using Iraq’s banking ties with the United States to launder US dollars and circumvent Washington’s sanctions.
In an interview with Al-Monitor in Washington on Sunday, Hussein said that "It’s no secret that I am in touch with both Iranian and American officials,” adding that “Both sides trust us, and that’s a good thing... It’s in Iraq’s interest that there be less tension between Washington and Tehran."
“I will continue these contacts,” said Hussein. “The US is an important ally, and Iran is an important neighbor, with whom we share many common interests, including a border, religion, culture, economics and trade. I hope both sides will start talking to each other again, but that’s their decision,” he added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Kanaani touched on the issue of relations between Tehran and Riyadh, stressing the need for diplomacy to return the ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran back on track. Tehran welcomes any mediation by the Iraqi government and hopes that the efforts would improve relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he said.
In a statement on Thursday, members of several groups in the European Parliament and national parliaments called on European countries to boycott the ceremonies, and stand in solidarity with “the Iranian people who are fighting for their rights.”
Weeks before the anniversary of Islamic Republic’s establishment, a campaign was launched to boycott the regime’s ceremonies over the violent crackdown on nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini.
“We, cross-party Members of the European Parliament and Members of national parliaments, are urging the governments of the EU member states and the European External Action Service to boycott tomorrow's ceremony in Tehran for the anniversary of the Islamic revolution that brought this brutal regime to power. Likewise, EU officials ought to stay away from any such regime celebrations in Iranian embassies abroad,” read the statement.
The Islamic Republic government organizes 10 days of celebrations known as Fajr – literally meaning dawn – but the final day, February 11, is the most important one, in which the regime heavily invests. It already held an event on Thursday with a group of foreign ambassadors to the Islamic Republic with President Ebrahim Raisi in attendance. The government did not release the list of the participants but according to some reports envoys from European countries did not participate in the event – except for Hungary and Poland.
Dismayed by a lack of participation of Western envoys, Raisi said during the event that “The US and the three European countries [that are signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal] were caught up in a state of delusion and made miscalculations” by “meddling in Iran’s domestic affairs,” referring to the ongoing uprising.
Hailing the unanimity of European countries, US Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted, “Glad to see broad EU consensus against Islamic Revolution Day in Tehran, except from Orban’s Hungary, which all too regularly embraces autocrats, and Poland, whose silence is disappointing.”
“Nobody should be celebrating a regime with this much blood on its hands,” he added.
The statement by the MEPs added that “Over the past 44 years, the Islamic Republic has murdered tens of thousands of Iranians and has spread terror, misery and war throughout the region and beyond. Together with the Assad regime and Russia, the regime in Iran has carried out horrific war crimes in a conflict that has killed over 500,000 Syrians.”
The statement drew attention to the fact that hundreds of protesters have been killed, “for the 'crime' of demanding freedom, democracy and dignity and above all equal rights for women. Women and even young girls are being harassed, arrested, tortured, raped and murdered for simply refusing to wear the hijab or just for not fully covering their hair. At least 100 Iranians are facing the death penalty over their participation in protests following sham trials where the accused had just 15 minutes to defend themselves.”
Touching upon the growing military ties between Iran and Russia, the statement warned that “Tehran is now intensifying its growing alliance with Russia by supplying Moscow with Kamikaze drones designed to terrorize the Ukrainian people and to destroy their critical infrastructure.”
The MEPs said that celebrating “the rise to power of this odious regime” by European politicians and ambassadors -- even low-ranking diplomats -- would be “an inexcusable violation of our own values and a betrayal of the Iranian people as well as the regime's countless victims in the region and in Ukraine.
“Any official European participation in these celebrations would play into the hands of the Islamic Republic,” they said, adding that the mullahs would like nothing more than to demonstrate that despite their repression of the protests, it is "back to business as usual" with the EU.
