Foreign relations of Iran

EU approves new sanctions - but delays them

BRUSSELS -- Member states of the European Union have formally approved new sanctions Russia, but will delay their application.

This will be done in order to "give Moscow time to continue its peace efforts."

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit Turkey on Aug. 28 before embarking on a mini-tour of Europe that will take him to Russia, Italy, Luxembourg and Belgium, Iranian media reported.
     
In Turkey, Zarif will attend the ceremony inaugurating Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as president.
      

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart have laid the groundwork for an extension of a July 20 deadline to strike a historic nuclear deal after intense talks in Vienna.

A Western diplomat went as far as to say that it was now "highly probable" Iran and world powers would agree to such a move, and that the extension would be months not weeks.

Iran has offered "rational proposals" in nuclear negotiations but "excessive demands" of the P5+1 world powers are likely to prevent agreement by the July 20 deadline, Tehran's foreign minister said Thursday.
      

Iran and six world powers wrapped up Friday a fifth round of nuclear talks having started to draft an accord, and will meet again on July 2, the EU said.
      
"We have worked extremely hard all week to develop elements we can bring together when we meet for the next round in Vienna, beginning on 2 July," said spokesman Michael Mann.
      

The United Kingdom's Embassy in Tehran is to reopen after a three-year pause, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced.

Britain's Embassy will be open again "as soon as practical arrangements are made", the BBC quotes Hague as saying in a written statement.

Iran and the United States go into a second day of talks June 10 on Tehran's contested nuclear programme, with Washington warning of "tough choices" ahead of a July deadline for a deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to visit Turkey on Monday, for the first time since he was elected last year, a Turkish official said.
      
The Iranian leader is expected to meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara for talks on bilateral ties and the broader Middle East, the official told AFP on Thursday.
      

The EU's foreign ministers are meeting on Monday in Brussels to discuss the situation in Ukraine and to possibly agree on extending sanctions against Russia.

The EU has declared illegal Sunday's referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk for breaking away from Ukraine.

“The IEA did not suggest that Albania broke sanctions on Iran and any report that says otherwise needs to run a correction,” Magdalena Sanocka, a spokesperson for the IEA, said.

Sanocka said its report only mentioned Albania as a temporary destination for an Iranian oil tanker, which eventually unloaded its cargo elsewhere.