BRUSSELS: The EU’s top diplomat told Iran’s foreign minister Tuesday that Brussels is willing to facilitate a return to negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program after US and Israeli strikes.
“Negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program should restart as soon as possible” and “cooperation” with the International Atomic Energy Agency must resume, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X after a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“The EU is ready to facilitate this.”
Kallas further warned Tehran that “any threats to pull out of the non-proliferation treaty don’t help to lower tensions.”
The call came after Aragchi ruled out a quick resumption of talks with the United States and said Tehran will first need assurances it will not be attacked again.
The United States and Iran were holding nuclear talks when Israel hit Iranian nuclear sites and military infrastructure. The United States joined the assault by bombing three nuclear sites — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — on June 21.
The EU has long sought to play a mediation role with Iran.
The 27-nation bloc was a signatory — and facilitator — of a 2015 deal between Iran and international powers over Tehran’s nuclear program.
US President Donald Trump abandoned that deal in 2018.
EU says ready to facilitate return to Iran nuclear talks
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EU says ready to facilitate return to Iran nuclear talks
- Brussels is willing to facilitate a return to negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program after US and Israeli strikes
- EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas held a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday
Venezuela swears in 5,600 troops after US military build-up
- American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87
CARACAS: The Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday, as the United States cranks up military pressure on the oil-producing country.
President Nicolas Maduro has called for stepped-up military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87.
Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a terrorist organization last month.
Maduro asserts the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country’s oil reserves.
“Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” Col. Gabriel Rendon said Saturday during a ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas.
According to official figures, Venezuela has around 200,000 troops and an additional 200,000 police officers.
A former opposition governor died in prison on Saturday where he had been detained on charges of terrorism and incitement, a rights group said.
Alfredo Diaz was at least the sixth opposition member to die in prison since November 2024.
They had been arrested following protests sparked by last July’s disputed election, when Maduro claimed a third term despite accusations of fraud.
The protests resulted in 28 deaths and around 2,400 arrests, with nearly 2,000 people released since then.
Diaz, governor of Nueva Esparta from 2017 to 2021, “had been imprisoned and held in isolation for a year; only one visit from his daughter was allowed,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The group says there are at least 887 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado condemned the deaths of political prisoners in Venezuela during “post-electoral repression.”
“The circumstances of these deaths — which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment — reveal a sustained pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate she believes won the election.
