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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken: Under the new administration in Washington there are signs of rapprochement in the nuclear dispute with Iran
Photo:
Evan Vucci / AP
The new US President Joe Biden wants to do a lot different than his predecessor Donald Trump.
Iran could now benefit from its change of political course.
A rapprochement is emerging in the nuclear dispute with the Islamic Republic.
Biden's government has agreed to hold talks with Tehran.
On Thursday, Washington officially accepted the invitation from the European Union to hold talks with Tehran and the six participating countries in order to renegotiate the nuclear deal.
A senior US government official said the new President Biden's administration was showing goodwill in its readiness to meet with the signatories to the nuclear deal.
The US wanted to "sit down at the table" with Iran in order to attempt to get both states to return to the nuclear deal.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Great Britain had previously discussed in Paris with their new US counterpart Anthony Blinken on video how Iran policy can be coordinated transatlantically again in future.
The nuclear deal was concluded in 2015 between Iran and the USA, Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia and China.
Under Biden's predecessor Trump, the United States withdrew unilaterally in 2018.
Because of the change in power in the White House, there is hope that the US could revert to the deal.
As a prerequisite for this, Washington repeatedly cites that Tehran must again fully meet its obligations.
USA makes first concessions to Tehran
Washington also made its first concessions to Tehran.
On Thursday, the Biden government withdrew a request from the previous government to the UN Security Council to reinstate international sanctions against Iran.
The dpa news agency had received a corresponding internal letter to the UN Security Council.
Entry restrictions for Iranian officials who come to the United States for meetings of the United Nations are also to be lifted.
It is about eliminating counterproductive measures, said a government official.
At the same time, the United States, Germany, Great Britain and France sent clear words to Tehran after the consultations on Thursday and warned against restricting the access of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to Iranian nuclear facilities.
This would be a "dangerous decision," said a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the four states.
The ministers urged Tehran "to weigh the consequences of such a severe measure, especially now that new diplomatic opportunities are opening up."
Iran had informed the IAEA at the beginning of the week that it would no longer adhere to a central part of the agreement to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb from Tuesday next week.
The IAEA inspectors should then be denied unlimited access to nuclear facilities.
This would de facto leave nothing of the agreement.
Iran rejected the warning and replied again that the three European agreement partners and the US for their part were not sticking to the deal.
The leadership in Tehran calls for the Americans to lift all sanctions.
Biden, in turn, has made it clear that he is not ready for this.
For the first time since being sworn in, Biden takes part in an international summit
After withdrawing from the agreement, the Trump administration imposed drastic sanctions on Tehran, which contributed to the worst economic crisis in recent Iranian history.
Iran, for its part, had begun increasing uranium enrichment and producing uranium metal.
In addition, he now works with faster centrifuges and stores far more uranium than allowed.
On Friday, US President Biden will take part in an international summit for the first time since he was sworn in.
With Chancellor Angela Merkel and other heads of state and government of western industrial nations, he is discussing how to fight the corona pandemic in a G7 video conference.
He then appears as the first US President at a Munich security conference.
For the first time since taking office, Biden will address a European audience directly with his speech.
The focus of the conference will be the new beginning in the relations between the US and its European partners, which had plummeted to a low point under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.
Due to the corona pandemic, the conference is taking place digitally.
A physical conference will be rescheduled later in the year.
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asc / AFP / Reruters / dpa
