EU envoy to visit Iran as Borrell seeks to end impasse

TEHRAN: The European Union’s (EU) Iran nuclear talks coordinator Enrique Mora is to visit Tehran on Tuesday, the semi-official agency Nour News reported on Saturday, as the bloc said it was seeking to break a deadlock and save the 2015 accord.

Talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been on hold since March, chiefly over Tehran’s insistence that Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its elite security force, from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

“This trip could be seen as a new step in constructive consultations on the few but important issues that have remained in the Vienna talks,” Nour News said on Twiter.

Separately, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the Financial Times he was seeking a “middle way” to end the impasse, which threatens to scupper more than a year of European diplomatic efforts.

Borrell is considering a scenario whereby the designation is lited on the IRGC, but kept in place on other parts of the organisation, which has several arms and a sprawling business empire, the FT reported.

The foreign policy chief also said he wanted Mora to visit Tehran to discuss the issue, but added that Iran “was very much reluctant” and described the diplomatic push as “the last bullet.”

The report also cited Borrell as saying negotiators would not give Iran an ultimatum.

Reuters reported last week that Iran’s clerical rulers, emboldened by an oil price surge since Russia invaded Ukraine, are in no rush to revive the 2015 pact to ease sanctions on its energyreliant economy.

Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in return for relief from sanctions.

Human rights groups on Friday warned Tehran will try to use an upcoming visit to Iran by a UN expert in order to avoid accountability.

Alena Douhan, the special rapporteur focused on the impact of unilateral sanctions, is due to begin a visit to Iran from Saturday, the UN has said.

The mission from May 7 to 18 will be the first to the Islamic republic by a special rapporteur since 2005.

In a statement on Thursday, Douhan said she hoped to “gather first-hand information on the impact of unilateral coercive measures on the full realisation of all human rights” in Iran.

“My visit will aim at covering all walks of life and sectors affected by such measures,” said Douhan, whose official title is “special rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights.”