Europeans Urge Iran ‘Not to Make Unrealistic Demands’ in Nuclear Talks

A view shows the entrance of Palais Coburg where closed-door nuclear talks with Iran take place in Vienna, Austria, August 4,2022. (Reuters)
A view shows the entrance of Palais Coburg where closed-door nuclear talks with Iran take place in Vienna, Austria, August 4,2022. (Reuters)
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Europeans Urge Iran ‘Not to Make Unrealistic Demands’ in Nuclear Talks

A view shows the entrance of Palais Coburg where closed-door nuclear talks with Iran take place in Vienna, Austria, August 4,2022. (Reuters)
A view shows the entrance of Palais Coburg where closed-door nuclear talks with Iran take place in Vienna, Austria, August 4,2022. (Reuters)

Britain, France and Germany urged Iran on Friday "not to make unrealistic demands" in the talks to salvage a 2015 deal aimed at reining in Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Officials from world powers and Iran were meeting in the Austrian capital for the first time since March, when negotiations -- which began in 2021 to reintegrate the United States into the agreement -- stalled.

"Today's talks in Vienna do not mark a new round of negotiations. These are technical discussions," the three countries -- known as the E3 group -- said in a statement.

"The text is on the table. There will be no re-opening of negotiations. Iran must now decide to conclude the deal while this is still possible. We urge Iran not to make unrealistic demands outside the scope of the JCPoA", or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the statement said.

Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and the United States signed the JCPOA in July 2015.

But following the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 under former president Donald Trump and the re-imposition of US sanctions, Tehran has backtracked on its obligations to curtail its atomic activities, such as uranium enrichment.

The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has found that Iran subsequently exceeded the agreed enrichment rate of 3.67 percent, rising to 20 percent in early 2021.

It then crossed an unprecedented 60-percent threshold, getting closer to the 90 percent needed to make a bomb.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on Tuesday warned Iran's program was "moving ahead very, very fast" and "growing in ambition and capacity".

But Tehran argues that the issues "are political in nature and should not be used as a pretext for abuse against Iran in the future".

"Now, the hours in Vienna are decisive and the Iranian side must be given assurances as soon as possible," an Iranian diplomat told the Iranian state news agency, IRNA.

Earlier, the European Commission said that Tehran and Washington should make "one last effort" to salvage the deal at the Vienna talks, saying that political decisions are needed to overcome their impasse.

"The time has come for one last effort," spokesperson Peter Stano told a news briefing on Friday, explaining that the EU - as coordinator of the talks - had proposed a new draft text last month because room for additional maneuver had been exhausted.

"Clear, decisive political decisions need to be taken by the capitals of the countries involved in the JCPoA," he said. "So, that's the process that is underway in Vienna. We hope it will lead to results."



French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
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French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)

France's intelligence chief said on Tuesday that all aspects of Iran's nuclear program have been pushed back several months after American and Israeli air strikes, but there is uncertainty over where its highly-enriched uranium stocks are.

"The Iranian nuclear program is the material, it is highly-enriched uranium, it is a capacity to convert this uranium from the gaseous phase to the solid phase. It is the manufacturing of the core and it is the delivery," Nicolas Lerner, who heads the DGSE intelligence service, told LCI television.

"Our assessment today is that each of these stages has been very seriously affected, very seriously damaged and that the nuclear program, as we knew it, has been extremely delayed, probably many months."

Lerner, who was speaking for the first time on national television, said a small part of Iran's highly-enriched uranium stockpile had been destroyed, but the rest remained in the hands of the authorities.

"Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It's very important. We won't have the capacity to trace it (the stocks)," Lerner said.

Other intelligence assessments have also suggested that Iran retains a hidden stockpile of enriched uranium and the technical capacity to rebuild.

Lerner echoed those comments saying there was a possibility Iran could press ahead with a clandestine program with smaller enrichment capacities.

"That's why France is so attached to finding a diplomatic solution to this nuclear crisis," he said.