European Union Foreign Minister Josip Borrell arrived in Tehran today for consultations aimed at "reducing escalation", in light of the atmosphere of international tension over Iran's nuclear file.
The visit of the European official coincides with the Iranian Foreign Ministry announcement that Tehran will not hold any bilateral talks with the United States to discuss ways to solve the crisis.
It also comes after the tension between Washington and Tehran reached its climax in January, following the assassination of the United States commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad, and the military escalation that followed between the two parties.
Borel has held a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran, and it is scheduled to meet later with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Shura Council Speaker Ali Larijani.
A statement issued by Borrell's office indicated that his mission will be to "reduce tension and search for possible political solutions to the current crisis."
The statement stated that Borrell would "express the European Union's determination to protect" the international agreement on Iran's nuclear file concluded in Vienna in 2015.
During a press conference this morning, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi described the visit as a "mission."
"I hope that the (Borel) talks he will have with Iranian officials ... will allow the Europeans to understand" the current situation and to demonstrate goodwill by taking serious measures, "he added.
Mousavi also stressed that "Iran has not and will not conduct any kind of bilateral negotiations with the Americans, and this is our policy."
"What the (Iranian authorities) confirmed is that the Americans should return to the situation before 2017, lift the unilateral sanctions they imposed and return to the negotiating table within the framework of the 5 + 1 group (the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany)," he said.
It is noteworthy that Borrell had announced on January 24 that the signatories of the Iranian nuclear agreement agreed to hold a reconciliation meeting in February, in order to maintain the agreement that is threatened with collapse since the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018.
The agreement between Iran and the 5 + 1 group offers Tehran to lift part of the international sanctions that stifle its economy, in exchange for guarantees aimed at proving exclusively civilian nature of its nuclear program.