EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell is expected to arrive in Tehran on Monday, Iranian foreign spokesman Abbas Moussavi said on Sunday as the Iranian nuclear issue sparked new international tensions. Josep Borrell "will travel to Iran tomorrow for the first time since taking office [early December]," Abbas Moussavi said in a press release. Abbas Moussavi did not give more details on the visit of Josep Borrell, in particular on his arrival time or the duration of his stay in Iran.
This comes in a new period of tension between Iran and the West over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Josep Borrell announced on January 24 that the states parties to the international Iranian nuclear agreement concluded in Vienna in 2015 had agreed to hold a conciliation meeting "in February" in order to preserve this pact which threatens to fly apart since the United States unilaterally denounced it in 2018.
Trying to save the nuclear deal
All parties "reaffirmed their determination to preserve the agreement, which is in the interest of all," he said. In Vienna, Iran has agreed to drastically reduce its nuclear program, in order to guarantee that it has no military aim, in exchange for the lifting of part of the international sanctions which then suffocated its economy. But the exit of the United States from this pact and the re-establishment and strengthening of American sanctions against Iran since 2018 deprives the Islamic Republic of the benefits it expected from the agreement.
In response to these sanctions, Iran, whose economy has plunged into a violent recession, has freed itself since May 2019 from several key commitments it had made in Vienna. In an attempt to force Tehran to return to full application of the Vienna agreement, the Europeans launched in January a dispute settlement mechanism under this text.
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