Qassemi: Zarif’s planned talks in Europe to focus on nuclear deal, not riots
Tehran rejected media reports linking an upcoming meeting between Iranian and EU officials to recent riots in Iran, saying the planned talks will focus on the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is due in Brussels later this week for talks with the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini as well as his British, German and French counterparts, Press TV reported.
“This meeting will be held at the invitation of Ms. Mogherini, and is only meant to review the process of implementing the JCPOA,” said Qassemi, using an acronym for the nuclear deal officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
He was reacting to a foreign media fanfare created over Mogherini’s invitation, which claimed the EU was planning the meeting to address the riots in Iran.
“This meeting has been associated with Iran’s internal affairs with vicious intentions,” Qassemi said.
The session would possibly take place at Mogherini’s office on Thursday or Friday or earlier, he added.
Earlier in the day, Zarif, himself, commented on the claims in media reports, saying, “Some media outlets, especially Israeli ones, tried to fabricate news in this regard. Such news fabrication is baseless and unfounded.”