Iran’s foreign minister will discuss Tehran’s nuclear programme and a detained citizen’s case during his visit to France this week.
TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign minister will discuss the country’s nuclear programme and the case of an Iranian citizen held in France during his visit to Paris this week.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet his French counterpart Jean Noel Barrot after France backed a resolution calling on Iran to allow International Atomic Energy Agency access to key nuclear sites.
The discussions come after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran in mid-June, triggering a 12-day war that the United States briefly joined with strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran has since barred IAEA inspectors from visiting the bombed sites and last week officially scrapped a cooperation framework agreement it had agreed with the agency after the war.
Tehran said a new framework was needed to access the bombed sites, citing “safety and security risks”.
Iran had already declared that agreement invalid since 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 tackle the case of Mahdieh Esfandiari, a 40-year-old Iranian arrested in France in February on charges of promoting terrorism.
Esfandiari was released on bail in October after France and Iran had been in talks to exchange her for French couple Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who had been held in Iran for more than three years.
Earlier this month, Iran said it has conditionally released Kohler and Paris who were immediately taken by French diplomats to France’s mission in Tehran.
