TEHRAN: The EU envoy charged with coordinating talks on reviving a troubled nuclear deal between Iran and major powers is to visit Tehran on Thursday, the Iranian foreign ministry said.
Enrique Mora’s visit “is a follow-up to consultations between the two sides on matters of shared interest, particularly Iran-EU relations, Afghanistan and the nuclear agreement,” a ministry statement said.
The deal, which gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program, has been on life support since 2018, when then US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out and reimposed crippling sanctions.
Mora’s trip to Tehran comes amid mounting pressure from EU countries as well as the United States for a swift resumption of talks on Washington’s return to the agreement.
“The message to Iran is unequivocal: return to the negotiating table immediately,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a visit to Israel on Sunday.
Tehran has been seeking European guarantees that there will be no repetition of Trump’s unilateral withdrawal.
“The European capitals, including Berlin ... must give their clear assurance to the Islamic republic that this time, no party will violate the nuclear deal,” foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on Monday.
US President Joe Biden has signalled a willingness to return to the deal, but his Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned earlier this month that time was running out and the ball was in Iran’s court.
Talks in Vienna between Iran and the remaining parties to the agreement — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — have been on hold since a June election in Iran led to a change of president.
New President Ebrahim Raisi — an ultraconservative former judiciary chief — is thought to be less ready than his predecessor Hassan Rouhani to make concessions to the West for the sake of a deal.
Iran has said repeatedly that it is ready to resume talks “soon” but no date has yet been announced.
Tehran gradually rolled back its own nuclear commitments in response to the US pullout, and Washington has been demanding that it return to its obligations too.
Mora attended Raisi’s inauguration in August, drawing criticism of the EU from Israel, a fierce critic of the nuclear deal with its arch foe Iran.
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EU envoy to visit Iran amid nuclear talks push
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EU envoy to visit Iran amid nuclear talks push
- Enrique Mora’s trip to Tehran comes amid mounting pressure for a swift resumption of talks
- Iran has been seeking guarantees that there will be no repetition of Donald Trump’s withdrawal
Palestinian NGO condemns Israeli act of ‘revenge’ after prisoner abuse video
- A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military priso
RAMALLAH: A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military prison.
Just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Ben Gvir held a tour of Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.
In footage filmed on Friday and broadcast by the channel, around 20 police officers are seen storming a hallway leading to prison cells, brandishing their weapons and firing stun grenades.
They then pull five detainees from their cells, their hands tied behind their backs, forcing them face-down onto the floor.
The operation took place as a bill proposing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism awaited a final vote in the Israeli parliament.
“This is all part of ongoing displays meant to take revenge on Palestinian detainees,” Abdallah al?Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, told AFP on Saturday.
“Everything Ben Gvir and the far?right government are doing affects not only the Palestinian people and prisoners in detention camps — it also impacts the global legal and human rights system,” he added.
Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, is considered one of the most hard-line members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“It is simply a source of pride — arriving at a prison like this, a prison for terrorists, the vilest of the vile, seeing them like this,” Ben Gvir said in the video.
“I want one more thing: to execute them — the death penalty for terrorists,” he added.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday said the remarks were “a new war crime and a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law regarding prisoners.”
International rights groups have repeatedly warned of alleged abuse and mistreatment inflicted in Israeli prisons since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country, with the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed in 1962.
Just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Ben Gvir held a tour of Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.
In footage filmed on Friday and broadcast by the channel, around 20 police officers are seen storming a hallway leading to prison cells, brandishing their weapons and firing stun grenades.
They then pull five detainees from their cells, their hands tied behind their backs, forcing them face-down onto the floor.
The operation took place as a bill proposing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism awaited a final vote in the Israeli parliament.
“This is all part of ongoing displays meant to take revenge on Palestinian detainees,” Abdallah al?Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, told AFP on Saturday.
“Everything Ben Gvir and the far?right government are doing affects not only the Palestinian people and prisoners in detention camps — it also impacts the global legal and human rights system,” he added.
Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, is considered one of the most hard-line members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“It is simply a source of pride — arriving at a prison like this, a prison for terrorists, the vilest of the vile, seeing them like this,” Ben Gvir said in the video.
“I want one more thing: to execute them — the death penalty for terrorists,” he added.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday said the remarks were “a new war crime and a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law regarding prisoners.”
International rights groups have repeatedly warned of alleged abuse and mistreatment inflicted in Israeli prisons since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country, with the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed in 1962.
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