Iran to hold nuclear talks with European powers in Geneva

Iran will hold talks about its disputed nuclear programme with three European powers on Friday, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Sunday, days after the UN atomic watchdog passed a resolution against Tehran.

Iran reacted to the resolution - proposed by Britain, France, Germany and the United States - with what government officials called various measures such as activating numerous new and advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium.

Japan's Kyodo news agency, which first reported that the meeting would take place, said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's government was seeking a solution to the nuclear impasse ahead of the inauguration in January of US President-elect Donald Trump.

A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting would go ahead, adding, "Tehran has always believed that the nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomacy. Iran has never left the talks."

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei later said the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and Britain would take part in the talks, which he said would cover regional issues as well as the nuclear dossier.

Baghaei did not say where the talks would take place. A spokesperson for the Swiss foreign ministry directed questions to the countries named in the Kyodo report.

"Views will be exchanged...on a range of regional discussions and subjects including the issues of Palestine, Lebanon and also the nuclear subject", Baghaei said.

In 2018, the then-Trump administration exited Iran's 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate the pact's nuclear limits, with moves such as rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.

Indirect talks between President Joe Biden's administration and Tehran to try to revive the pact have failed, but Trump said during his election campaign in September, "We have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make a deal."