EU Says Talks with Iran ‘Positive Enough’ to Reopen Nuclear Negotiations

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell holds a press conference after the meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell holds a press conference after the meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)
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EU Says Talks with Iran ‘Positive Enough’ to Reopen Nuclear Negotiations

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell holds a press conference after the meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell holds a press conference after the meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)

The EU's foreign policy chief said on Friday that he believed there had been enough progress during consultations between his envoy and Iranian officials in Tehran this week to relaunch nuclear negotiations after two months of deadlock.

Talks to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been on hold since March, chiefly over Tehran's insistence that Washington remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps from the US list of designated terrorist organizations.

Speaking as talks coordinator Enrique Mora arrived back in Europe, Josep Borrell said Iran's response had been "positive enough" after Mora had delivered a message that things could not continue as they were.

"These things can not be resolved overnight," Borrell told reporters at a G7 foreign ministers meeting in northern Germany. "Let's say the negotiations were blocked and they have been de-blocked and that means there is the prospective of reaching a final agreement."

The broad outline of the deal that aims to revive the accord which restrains Iran's nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions was essentially agreed in March.

However, it has since been thrown into disarray after last-minute Russian demands and the dispute over the US Foreign Terrorist Organization list.

Western officials are largely losing hope that it can be resurrected, sources familiar with the matter have said, forcing them to weigh how to limit Iran's atomic program even as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has divided the big powers.

"It has gone better than expected - the negotiations were stalled, and now they have been reopened," Borrell said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Mora’s trip had been "an opportunity to focus on initiatives to resolve the remaining issues".

"A good and reliable agreement is within reach if the United States makes a political decision and adheres to its commitments," he said.

A French diplomatic source said on Thursday he saw little chance of the United States agreeing to remove Iran's elite security force from its list of foreign terrorist organizations any time soon.

Mora has been in Tehran this week in what has been described as the last chance to salvage the 2015 accord, which then US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia are also parties to the accord.

In a bizarre incident, Mora and his team were held at Frankfurt airport for several hours on return from the Iranian capital on Friday.

"We were kept separated. Refusal to give any explanation for what seems a violation of the Vienna Convention," he said on Twitter. Germany authorities did not immediately comment.

Iran's official IRNA news agency alleged, without evidence, that Israel was behind the incident.

"What has happened in Frankfurt has to do with opposition to the progress in the nuclear talks ... The Zionist lobby has influence in the German security apparatus," it said.



Rubio to Meet China's Wang on Sidelines of ASEAN Talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP
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Rubio to Meet China's Wang on Sidelines of ASEAN Talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday on the sidelines of ASEAN talks in Malaysia where Washington's tariffs are in sharp focus.

Rubio and Wang's first face-to-face meeting since US President Donald Trump returned to office comes as Washington and Beijing are locked in disputes on everything from trade and fentanyl to Taiwan and technology.

Rubio, a longtime China hawk, and Wang are in Kuala Lumpur for a gathering of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Japan, South Korea and Australia are also attending.

US officials said ahead of Rubio's first trip to the region as secretary of state that Washington was "prioritizing" its commitment to East and Southeast Asia.

Rubio said Thursday the United States has "no intention of abandoning" the Asia-Pacific region.

But US tariffs have overshadowed the conference and Rubio has sought to placate Asian trade partners, saying talks were ongoing and might result in "better" rates than for the rest of the world.

Trump has threatened punitive tariffs ranging from 20 to 50 percent against more than 20 countries, many of them in Asia, if they do not strike deals with Washington by August 1.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said this week that tariffs were being used as "sharpened instruments of geopolitical rivalry".

Wang on Thursday called for a "fairer and more reasonable" international order.

"At the same time, we are also confronted with challenges such as the impact of unilateral protectionism and the abuse of tariffs by a certain major country," Wang said.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have ratcheted up since Trump took office in January, with both countries engaging in a tariff war that briefly sent duties on each other's exports sky-high.

At one point the United States hit China with additional levies of 145 percent on its goods as both sides engaged in tit-for-tat escalation. China's countermeasures on US goods reached 125 percent.

Beijing and Washington agreed in May to temporarily slash their staggeringly high tariffs -- an outcome Trump dubbed a "total reset".

- Taiwan, South China Sea -

Before becoming Secretary of State in January, Rubio had already been one of the most vocal critics of China on the American political stage for many years.

Rubio and Wang are also likely to discuss US concerns over China's expansionary behavior in the South China Sea and Beijing's growing military pressure on Taiwan.

China claims the democratic self-ruled island as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.

Like most countries, Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with the island.

However, the United States is Taiwan's biggest arms supplier and has shown increasing support for Taipei in the face of Beijing's growing military pressure on the island in recent years.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused China in late May of "credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power" in the Asia-Pacific region.

He also claimed that Beijing "trains every day" to invade Taiwan.

In response, Chinese diplomats accused the United States of using the Taiwan issue to "contain China" and called on Washington to stop "playing with fire".