Iran to hold nuclear talks with European powers in Istanbul

First discussion since attack by Israel and the US will take place this week

Iran's nuclear programme has been a source of friction for decades. Reuters

Fresh talks between Iran and European powers over Tehran's nuclear programme will take place on Friday in Istanbul, state media has reported.

It will be the first discussion since the US and Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities a month ago.

Iranian diplomats will meet counterparts from the UK, France and Germany, known as the E3, after the trio warned that sanctions could be reimposed on Tehran if it does not return to the negotiating table.

"In response to the request of European countries, Iran has agreed to hold a new round of talks," said foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghai, as quoted by state TV.

Israel launched a wave of surprise strikes on Iran last month, targeting key military and nuclear facilities. The US launched its own set of strikes on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.

Iran and the US had held several rounds of nuclear negotiations through Omani mediators before Israel launched its 12-day war. But US President Donald Trump's decision to join Israel in striking the Iranian nuclear facilities effectively ended the talks.

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Western nations and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.

The E3 countries last met with Iranian representatives in Geneva on June 21 - just one day before the US strikes.

Ali Larijani, top adviser to Iran's supreme leader on nuclear issues, met Russian President Vladimir Putin in a surprise meeting at the Kremlin on Sunday. Mr Larijani "conveyed assessments of the escalating situation in the Middle East and around the Iranian nuclear programme", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the meeting.

Mr Putin expressed Russia's "well-known positions on how to stabilise the situation in the region and on the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear programme", Mr Peskov added.

Iran and world powers struck a deal in 2015 called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which placed significant restrictions on Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. But the hard-won deal began to unravel in 2018, during Mr Trump's first presidency, when the US walked away from it and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

European countries have in recent days threatened to trigger the deal's "snapback" mechanism, which allows the reimposition of sanctions in the event of non-compliance by Iran.

After a call with his European counterparts on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Western nations had "absolutely no moral, legal grounds" for reactivating the snapback sanctions. He elaborated in a post to social media on Sunday.

"Through their actions and statements, including providing political and material support to the recent unprovoked and illegal military aggression of the Israeli regime and the US ... the E3 have relinquished their role as 'participants' in the JCPOA," said Mr Araghchi.

That made any attempt to reinstate the terminated UN Security Council resolutions "null and void", he added.

"Iran has shown that it is capable of defeating any delusional 'dirty work' but has always been prepared to reciprocate meaningful diplomacy in good faith," Mr Araghchi wrote.