‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken

‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken
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‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken

‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken

The United States and its European allies said on Thursday that it was now just a matter of weeks to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal.

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the nuclear deal resumed almost two months ago.

Western diplomats have previously indicated they were hoping to have a breakthrough over the next few weeks, but sharp differences remain with the toughest issues still unresolved.

Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.

Diplomats and analysts say the longer Iran remains outside the deal, the more nuclear expertise it will gain, shortening the time it might need to race to build a bomb if it chose to, thereby undermining the accord's original purpose.

"We are indeed at a decisive moment," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference after meeting French, German and British ministers in Berlin.

"There is real urgency and it's really now a matter of weeks, where we determine whether or not we can return to mutual compliance with the agreement."

The eighth round of talks, the first under Iran's new hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, resumed on Dec. 27 after adding some new Iranian demands to a working text.

Western states have repeatedly said that time was running out without setting a deadline for the end of talks.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock again said the window of opportunity was closing.

"The negotiations have now entered a decisive phase. We need to make very, very urgent progress here, otherwise we will not be able to reach an agreement together that will bring sufficient added value to the central issue of non-proliferation," she said.



Two Turks Detained Pending Trial over Deadly Migrant Boat Chase off Greek Island

Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP)
Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP)
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Two Turks Detained Pending Trial over Deadly Migrant Boat Chase off Greek Island

Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP)
Migrants crowd a wooden boat as they sail to the port in La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP)

Two Turkish nationals were detained pending trial for people trafficking on Wednesday after a deadly boat chase with the Greek coastguard off the island of Symi on Aug. 23.

A 39-year-old man, thought to be from Kuwait, was found dead in a speedboat carrying migrants off the east Aegean island. The Greek coastguard said warning shots were fired at the vessel when it ignored calls to stop and engaged in dangerous maneuvers.

The two defendants, 16 and 24 years, have been charged with people smuggling. They have both denied wrongdoing, legal sources said.

They appeared before a judge on the island of Rhodes on Wednesday who ordered their detention pending trial. The date of the trial depends on when the investigating magistrate wraps up a preliminary probe into the case.

A separate courts-martial process is under way against the coast guard officer who shot at the speedboat, charged with involuntary manslaughter and using a firearm for no reason.

In preliminary testimony, the officer said that he acted on his own initiative after the person steering the speedboat attempted to ram the coastguard vessel, placing coastguard crews' lives at risk.

Greece has been a favored gateway to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia since 2015, when nearly one million people reached its shores, in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

Thousands of others have died at sea. Numbers have dropped significantly since then and some 18,000 have reached Greece by sea so far this year.