ROME (AP) — President Joe Biden and a trio of European allies strategized Saturday over ways to achieve a diplomatic solution as Iran continues to make troubling advances with its nuclear program.
Biden’s meeting with the leaders of Germany, France and Britain, a group known as the E3, comes at a pivotal time as Iran continues to enrich uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.
The president is trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and bring Iran back into compliance with the pact that would have kept the Islamic republic at least one year away from the potential to field a nuclear weapon.
As Biden and Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Boris Johnson posed for a group photo before their closed-door talks, Biden was asked when he would like stalled negotiations with Iran to resume.
“They’re scheduled to resume,” he said.
Iran has yet to commit to a date to return to nuclear talks being held in Vienna but has signaled it will do so next week with a target of late November for resuming the negotiations. The U.S. and others have expressed skepticism about Iranian intentions.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier in the week that Saturday’s meeting would feature the leaders “all singing from the same song sheet on this issue.”
He called it a “study in contrast with the previous administration” since Iran was one of the areas of most profound divergence between the Trump administration and the Europeans.
The U.N.’s atomic watchdog has said Iran is increasingly in violation of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal and the U.S. has participated indirectly in talks aimed at bringing both Washington and Tehran back into compliance. Those talks in Vienna have been on hiatus since June, when Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took power.
Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union remain part of the deal.
Saturday’s meeting was held while the leaders are in Rome for the Group of 20 summit, the first stop on Biden’s five-day foreign trip. He’s also attending a U.N. climate conference in Scotland.
Biden was welcomed to the summit site by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and joined his counterparts for the customary “family photo,’ before he attended the opening plenary session on the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery.
APN
