EU Diplomat Meeting Iranian Nuclear Negotiator In Qatar- Sources

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and Chief Nuclear Negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani meets with Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Enrique Mora, in Tehran, Iran, on May 11, 2022.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and Chief Nuclear Negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani meets with Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Enrique Mora, in Tehran, Iran, on May 11, 2022.

European Union foreign policy official Enrique Mora and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani are holding meetings in Qatar, an Austria-based journalist reported.

Stephanie Liechtenstein who has been following the Iran nuclear negotiations tweeted Tuesday that according to her sources Mora and Bagheri-Kani met Tuesday and will also meet on Wednesday.

She said that “talks are focused mainly on Iran’s military support for Russia’s war against Ukraine as well as on the nuclear file and detainees.”

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arrived with a delegation possibly including Bagheri-Kani who is also deputy foreign minister in Doha Monday evening and held talks with Qatari officials on Tuesday, in what many believed to be related to issues pertaining to disputes with the United States.

“I am told the meeting is another attempt to help ease tensions,” Lichtenstein said, as the multilateral nuclear talks ended last September when Tehran put forth conditions unacceptable for Washington.

Since September, the US has demanded an end to Iran’s weapons supplies to Russia that has included hundreds of Kamikaze drones used against Ukrainian military and civilian targets.

In recent weeks there have been a flurry of reports about direct and indirect talks between Washington and Tehran on the nuclear issue, Americans held hostage in Iran and possibly Iran’s military cooperation with Russia. Some reports suggest that the US intends to reach a an unwritten interim nuclear deal, whereby it offers sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for a freeze on uranium enrichment at 60 percent.