During the evening of Monday 8 January, the European External Action Service (EEAS) announced that High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini is to convene a meeting with the foreign affairs ministers of the E3 countries – Sigmar Gabriel for Germany, Jean-Yves Le Drian for France, and Boris Johnson for the UK – and their Iranian counterpart, Jawad Zarif, in Brussels on Thursday 11 January.
When asked by EUROPE on 9 January about the reason for a meeting in the presence only of the European ministers, and not all the E3+3 ministers (the Europeans and the Russian, Chinese and US ministers), EEAS spokesperson Catherine Ray failed to give an explanation.
The meeting is expected to focus on the Iranian nuclear programme, at a time when the US president, who refused on 13 October to certify the nuclear agreement but agreed to renew the suspension of US sanctions for three months, has until Friday 12 January to say whether or not he wants to extend this suspension. "The meeting will take place in the context of the ongoing work to ensure a full and continued implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" on the Iranian nuclear programme, the EEAS stated in its press release.
According to Ray, the ongoing demonstrations in Iran, criticising the high cost of living, are not expected to be a subject for discussion. However, on 7 January, in an interview on German television channel ZDF, Gabriel said that the EU had decided to invite Zarif to talk about these demonstrations.
The EEAS spokesperson also said that no bilateral meeting between Mogherini and Zarif had been planned. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)