LONDON — As missiles flew between Israel and Iran, diplomats from Europe convened Friday across a table from Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in Switzerland to try to find an off-ramp for a rapidly accelerating regional conflict.
But there were no signs of a breakthrough in the three hours of talks, with a defiant Araghchi saying afterward that Iran would consider a resumption of diplomacy only “once the aggressor was held accountable for the crimes committed.”
He did say Iran was willing to speak to the Europeans again.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany were left to talk in generalities about the need for continued dialogue, which they hope will forestall a decision by President Donald Trump to thrust the United States into the hostilities.
“We are keen to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations with Iran, and we urge Iran to continue their talks with the United States,” Britain’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, said to reporters. “This is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don’t see regional escalation of this conflict.”
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, was similarly vague, declaring it was important to pursue a dialogue with Iran because “we believe there is no definitive military solution to the Iranian nuclear problem.”
With Trump having set a new deadline of two weeks before he decides whether to join Israel’s aerial campaign against Iran, the diplomats delivered an urgent message to Araghchi that his government must make significant concessions in its nuclear program.
Trump said, in effect, that the European officials were wasting their time. “Iran didn’t want to speak to Europe,” he said Friday afternoon. “They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help.”
The diplomacy, however, came against a fiery backdrop of strikes by both sides. A barrage of Iranian missiles struck several sites in Israel on Friday, severely injuring two people in the northern city of Haifa. Earlier, Israel announced overnight strikes on missile factories and a research center linked to Iran’s nuclear program.
Among the issues on the table in Geneva, European diplomats said, was giving inspectors unfettered access to Iran’s nuclear facilities and cutting its stockpile of ballistic missiles, which it has fired against Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on military bases and nuclear installations.
Araghchi said he had made clear that those missiles were critical to Iran’s defense and “are not negotiable.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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