UK interim Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden in joint telephone conversations discussed the ongoing negotiations on 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
According to the statement of the White House, heads of the three European countries including UK, France and Germany and US President Joe Biden talked about the current negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and emphasized the need for supporting partners in the West Asian region and joint efforts to deter and limit what are called Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region.
The Biden administration in recent days has been seeking to reassure Israel that it hasn’t agreed to new concessions with Iran and a nuclear deal isn’t imminent, US and Israeli officials told Axios.
Over the last week, White House officials assured their Israeli counterparts that despite claims in the press, there have been no new concessions to Iran, US officials said.
A spokesperson for the US Department of State also told Al Jazeera, “We are in regular contact with the European Union (about Iran’s response) and discussions with the European Union are being followed privately.”
“A deal might be closer than it was two weeks ago but the outcome remains uncertain as some gaps remain. In any case, it doesn’t seem to be imminent,” a US official told Axios, describing the message that was given to the Israelis.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 between Iran and the UN Security Council’s five permanent members and Germany. Former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 while the current US President, Joe Biden, has signaled his readiness to bring Washington back into the deal. Russia, the UK, Germany, China, the US and France have been in talks with Iran to restore the JCPOA to its original format since April 2021.
Recently, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell proposed a text to both Washington and Tehran and the latter sent its response to the EU text on Monday at midnight.
The US and the EU have both said they are discussing Tehran’s response and will announce their own response in the coming days.
