EU Awaits ‘Swift’ Response on Nuclear Deal ‘Final Text’

The hotel where Iran nuclear deal negotiations took place (AFP)
The hotel where Iran nuclear deal negotiations took place (AFP)
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EU Awaits ‘Swift’ Response on Nuclear Deal ‘Final Text’

The hotel where Iran nuclear deal negotiations took place (AFP)
The hotel where Iran nuclear deal negotiations took place (AFP)

Iran’s Kayhan newspaper, which is closely affiliated to the cleric-led country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has protested the final text submitted by the European Union (EU) at the end of the round of negotiations aimed at reviving the nuclear agreement.

The latest round of talks for rebooting the nuclear deal had concluded in Vienna last Monday.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the managing editor of Kayhan, said that the EU’s proposal for brokering a deal is “catastrophic” and “damaging,” adding that talks “have yet to yield a result that Iran wants.”

In the newspaper's editorial, Shariatmadari wrote that negotiations have failed to reach results that guarantee the interests of Iran, especially in terms of rising to fulfill the country’s economic benefits.

Iran's Nournews website, affiliated with the country's Supreme National Security Council that makes the decisions in the nuclear talks, had protested the EU proposal as well on Tuesday.

The website said the EU as the coordinator of the talks lacked the authority to “present its proposals as the final text.”

Despite Iranian outlets insisting that the EU proposal was not in the benefit of Iran, no official statement has been made by the Iranian government and its diplomatic cable regarding the draft.

Ibrahim Azizi, the vice-chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that the Commission has yet to receive any final text or draft from the negotiations.

“The final text must provide for our national interests and the strategic goals of the regime,” said Azizi, adding that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and his deputy will attend a meeting for the National Security parliamentary committee.

On Tuesday evening, the EU said that it expected Iran to respond “very quickly” to the “final text” that has emerged to revive a crippled nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

“There is no more space for negotiations,” Peter Stano, a foreign policy spokesman for the EU, told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday.

“We have a final text. So it's the moment for a decision: yes or no. And we expect all participants to take this decision very quickly.”



A Massive Explosion and Fire Strikes Iranian Port and Injures Hundreds

This image grab taken from footage released by the state television of IRIBNEWS on April 26, 2025 shows people walking away as smoke billows following an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Photo by IRIBNEWS / AFP)
This image grab taken from footage released by the state television of IRIBNEWS on April 26, 2025 shows people walking away as smoke billows following an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Photo by IRIBNEWS / AFP)
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A Massive Explosion and Fire Strikes Iranian Port and Injures Hundreds

This image grab taken from footage released by the state television of IRIBNEWS on April 26, 2025 shows people walking away as smoke billows following an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Photo by IRIBNEWS / AFP)
This image grab taken from footage released by the state television of IRIBNEWS on April 26, 2025 shows people walking away as smoke billows following an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Photo by IRIBNEWS / AFP)

The number of injured from an explosion Saturday at a port in southern Iran jumped to 281, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA quoted Mojtaba Khaledi, the spokesman of Iran’s National Emergency Organization, as giving the figure.
The blast happened at the Rajaei port just outside of Bandar Abbas, a major facility for container shipments for Iran that handles some 80 million tons (72.5 million metric tons) of goods a year.
Social media videos showed black billowing smoke after the blast. Others showed glass blown out of buildings kilometers (miles) away from the epicenter of the explosion, The Associated Press said.
Authorities have offered no cause for the explosion yet. Industrial accidents happen in Iran, particularly at its aging oil facilities that struggle for access to parts under international sanctions. But Iranian state TV specifically ruled out any energy infrastructure as causing or being damaged in the blast.
Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, told Iranian state TV that first responders were trying to reach the area while others were attempting to evacuate the site.
Hasanzadeh said the blast came from containers at Rajaei port in the city, without elaborating. State TV also reported there had been a building collapse caused by the explosion, though there were no immediate other details offered.
Rajaei port is some 1,050 kilometers (652 miles) southeast of Iran's capital, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes.
The blast happened as Iran and the United States met Saturday in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.