Qatari emir offers support for reviving nuclear deal
Tamim holds talks with Raisi, Khamenei during Iran visit
The Emir of Qatar met with Iranian leaders yesterday, offering support for efforts to revive the nuclear deal even as talks on the accord remain deadlocked.
“We believe that negotiation is the solution of the problem,” the official IRNA news agency quoted visiting Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani as saying after meeting President Ebrahim Raisi.
Raisi described Shaikh Tamim’s one-day visit to Tehran as a turning point in relations between Iran and Qatar.
Later in the day, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said during his meeting with Shaikh Tamim that their two nations should significantly boost economic and political ties.
“The current level of economic relations between the two countries is too low and it must be several times what it is,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement on his website. Political ties should also be developed, he said, as “there’s room for a further exchange of views”.
Iran and Qatar signed agreements involving trade, energy and tourism, Raisi said in televised comments, without giving details. “We hope this trip will be a new source for expanding cooperation,” Khamenei said.
EU envoy in Iran
The emir’s visit came as the European Union’s coordinator on nuclear talks, Enrique Mora, was still in Iran. The talks in Vienna have been stalled for months, apparently over an Iranian demand that Washington lift a terrorism designation on Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Mora met with the Iranian nuclear negotiator on Wednesday, just after Iranian intelligence services announced they had detained two European citizens. Talks continued yesterday.