Iran Will Respond to EU’s Nuclear Text by Midnight on Monday, Says Foreign Minister

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian listens to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian listens to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP)
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Iran Will Respond to EU’s Nuclear Text by Midnight on Monday, Says Foreign Minister

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian listens to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian listens to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP)

Iran will respond to the European Union's "final" text by midnight on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said, calling on the United States to show flexibility to resolve three remaining issues to save a 2015 nuclear pact.

"We do not want to reach a deal that after 40 days, two months or three months fails to be materialized on the ground .... we have told them that our red lines should be respected," he said.

"Specifically, there are three issues .... If these three issues are resolved, we can reach an agreement. But failure to revive the pact, would not be end of the world."

Amirabdollahian said the coming days were very important.

"We will need more talks if Washington does not show flexibility for resolving the remaining issues ... Like Washington, we have our own plan B if the talks fail," he said.

The EU, as coordinator of Iran's nuclear talks with world powers, said last week it had put forward a "final" text following four days of indirect talks between US and Iranian officials in Vienna.

Washington has said it is ready to quickly reach an agreement to restore the deal on the basis of the EU proposals.

Iranian officials said last week that they would convey their "additional views and considerations" to the EU.



North Korea Opening Tourist Site on East Coast Next Week

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, sitting center, with his wife Ri Sol Ju, rear, and daughter tours the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone in North Korea Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, sitting center, with his wife Ri Sol Ju, rear, and daughter tours the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone in North Korea Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
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North Korea Opening Tourist Site on East Coast Next Week

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, sitting center, with his wife Ri Sol Ju, rear, and daughter tours the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone in North Korea Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, sitting center, with his wife Ri Sol Ju, rear, and daughter tours the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone in North Korea Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korea next week will open a signature tourist site on its east coast that it called a prelude to a new era in its tourism industry, though there is no word on when the country will fully reopen its borders to foreign visitors.

The Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone has hotels and other accommodations for nearly 20,000 guests who can swim in the sea, play sports and other recreation activities and eat at restaurants and cafeterias on site, state media said, according to The Associated Press.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the site and cut the inaugural tape at a lavish ceremony Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. He said its construction would be recorded as “one of the greatest successes this year" and called the site “the proud first step” toward realizing the government's policy of developing tourism, according to KCNA.

The Wonsan-Kalma zone will begin service for domestic tourists next Tuesday, KCNA said. But it didn't say when it will start receiving foreign tourists.

Kim has been pushing to make the country a tourism hub as part of efforts to revive the ailing economy, and the Wonsan-Kalma zone is one of his most talked-about tourism projects. KCNA reported North Korea will confirm plans to build large tourist sites in other parts of the country, too.

But North Korea hasn't fully lifted the travel curbs, including a ban on foreign tourists, that were imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting from February 2024, North Korea has been accepting Russian tourists amid the booming military and other partnerships between the two countries, but Chinese group tours, which made up more than 90% of visitors before the pandemic, remain stalled.

In February this year, a small group of international tourists visited the country for the first time in five years, but tourist agencies said in March that their tours to North Korea were paused.