Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty made a round of phone calls on July 18, in which he discussed ways to revive talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, Al Ahram reported. In calls to British Foreign Minister David Lammy, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi, according to Al Ahram, Abdelatty explored ways to resume negotiations among Iran, the IAEA, and the E3 group, which comprises the U.K., France, and Germany.
Abdelatty’s diplomacy came as France, Britain and Germany told Iran on July 17 that they would restore UN sanctions unless Tehran reopened talks on its nuclear program immediately and produced concrete results by the end of August. The E3 foreign ministers, along with the European Union’s foreign policy representative Kaja Kallas, held their first call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iranian nuclear facilities a month ago, Reuters reported. A French diplomatic source said the ministers had urged Iran to resume diplomacy immediately to reach a “verifiable and lasting” deal, threatening to use the so-called “snapback” mechanism if it failed to do so.
