No breakthrough reached at Iran-E3 talks over return to negotiations with US

A European summit with Iran failed to deliver a breakthrough on Friday despite all sides agreeing to continue discussions that could end the conflict.

Germany, France, the UK and the EU urged Iran to revive diplomatic negotiations with Washington. Iran said it would only consider diplomacy once Israel put an end to its bombing campaign.

“Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again and once the aggression is stopped,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said after the meeting. “I make it crystal clear that Iran's defence capabilities are non-negotiable.”

Speaking shortly after the meeting, US President Donald Trump appeared to dismiss European diplomatic efforts. “We've been speaking to Iran and we'll see what happens,” he said, adding that he believed that talks in Geneva had not helped.

“Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe, Iran wants to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help on this one.”

Talks were convened in Geneva an attempt to contain the Israel-Iran war, with Europeans saying diplomacy must prevail despite the US appearing to weigh its military options.

“We invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

Mr Trump also reiterated criticism against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, saying she was wrong to say in March that Iran was not seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Iran was weeks or months from having a nuclear weapon, according to Mr Trump.

His office on Thursday said that he would make a decision on whether the US will join Israel’s war on Iran “in the next two weeks”, though on Friday, he called that time frame “the maximum”.

In a joint statement, European powers took a firm line with Iran as they “reiterated their long-standing concerns about Iran’s expansion of its nuclear programme, which has no credible civilian purpose”.

“They shared their support for discussions to continue and welcomed continuing US efforts to seek a negotiated solution. They expressed their willingness to meet again in the future,” said the statement.

Mr Araghchi, who travelled out of his country for the first time since the war erupted, also said he was “in favour of continuing discussions with the E3 [Germany, France, the UK] and the European Union”.

A 'perilous moment'

Israel appears to show little appetite to put an end to hostilities. Leaders have threatened to kill Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel's envoy to the UN, Danny Danon, told the UN Security Council his country would not stop its attacks “until Iran's nuclear threat is dismantled”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the war as a “perilous moment”.

“It is hugely important that we don’t see regional escalation of this conflict,” he said.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council before meeting his European counterparts in Geneva, Mr Araghchi described Israel's attacks on Iran last week as a “betrayal of diplomacy”.

The attacks caused the cancellation of the sixth round of US-Iran talks in Oman.

“We were supposed to meet the Americans on June 15 to craft a very promising agreement for a peaceful resolution of issues fabricated over our peaceful nuclear programme,” Mr Araghchi said.

Israel began attacking Iran on June 13, saying it aimed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme does not have military purposes – a claim rejected by western countries and Israel.

Diplomacy first

Europeans argue that they are best placed to negotiate with Tehran, pointing at Mr Trump's withdrawal under his previous mandate of a 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“Military operations can delay a nuclear programme but in no way eliminate it,” Mr Barrot said.

He also warned against intentions laid out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to force regime change in Iran.

“We know well, having seen it at work in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, how illusory and dangerous it is to want to impose regime change from the outside,” Mr Barrot said.

The meeting was preceded by a lunch attended by the European ministers, without Mr Araghchi, during which they reviewed preparatory discussions with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mr Barrot's office said Mr Rubio had told him that the US is ready for direct contact with Iranians “at any time”.

The Europeans appeared to have delivered on Israeli demands to request a complete dismantling of Iran's nuclear programme and its ballistic missile programme, as well as its support of proxy groups throughout the Middle East. Speaking earlier in the day, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Paris's proposal to Iran would link all three issues in one package.

Mr Macron said he wanted Iran to move towards “zero nuclear enrichment”. This represents an alignment with previous requests made by Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu.

France had previously never deviated from the position agreed in the JCPOA, which capped enrichment activities at 3.67 per cent.

Those close to the Israeli position assess that the capability of enrichment to the lower level of 3.67 per cent in the JCPOA means it is too easy to breach by enriching to a higher level. Israel says Iran could pursue a civilian nuclear programme without conducting enrichment on home soil.

This would represent a repudiation of the long-standing Iranian position that all countries are entitled to enrich uranium under UN safeguards and international treaties.