Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, will discuss the country’s nuclear programme and the case of an Iranian citizen held in France during a visit to Paris this week, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The meeting between Araghchi and his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, comes after France backed a resolution calling on Iran to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency access to key nuclear sites, including those bombed during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
In a statement, Iran’s foreign ministry said the discussions will cover the country’s nuclear programme, “the case of Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari, as well as regional and international developments.”
In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that the United States briefly joined with strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities.
Since the war, Iran has barred IAEA inspectors from visiting the bombed sites, and last week officially scrapped a cooperation framework agreement it had with the agency.
Tehran said a new framework is needed to access the bombed sites, citing “safety and security risks.”
Iran had already declared the previous agreement invalid in October after Britain, Germany, and France triggered the return of UN sanctions that had been lifted under the now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal.
In an interview published last week, Araghchi said talks with European governments were “no longer useful” after they triggered the snapback sanctions.
Wednesday’s discussions will also address the case of Esfandiari, a 40-year-old Iranian who was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting terrorism and later released on bail in October.
France and Iran had been negotiating a potential exchange of Esfandiari for the French couple Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, who had been held in Iran for more than three years.
Earlier this month, Iran said it had conditionally released Kohler and Paris, who were immediately taken by French diplomats to France’s mission in Tehran and were awaiting permission to return to France.
AFP