Abbas Araghchi will likely also meet with European officials, as window for reaching an agreement narrows
Iran’s foreign minister has met the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog at the start of a frantic round of diplomatic meetings in New York in a bid to avert the reimposition of a wave of UN sanctions on Iran starting on Sunday.
The crisis could rapidly spiral into fresh Israeli calls to attack Iran for failing to cooperate over its nuclear programme. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned on Monday: “We must destroy the axis of evil Iran and we have the power to do so. This is what lies ahead of us in the coming year, a year that could be a historic one for Israel’s security.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the window for reaching an agreement with Iran was limited, adding it was hard to predict if the snapback of the UN sanctions lifted when Iran reached a nuclear deal in 2015 will take place this weekend. With the deadline so close the risk of diplomatic miscalculation is high.
Abbas Araghchi is also likely to meet European foreign ministers on Tuesday.
