LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 18 - Reuters : The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday that he hoped EU and Iranian diplomats would meet soon to try and revive nuclear talks but declined to confirm reports of a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
Bloomberg News reported that an Iranian foreign minister gave a date on Sunday, citing an Iranian lawmaker. A senior EU official last week confirmed that meetings were scheduled in Vienna rather than in Brussels, but gave no date.
You never know, I'm more optimistic today than yesterday, Borrell said. As Borrell arrives in Luxembourg I am convinced that something is looking good for the UK Foreign Ministers. I hope that we can have preparatory meetings in Brussels in the days to come, Borrell has said in Brussels over the summer of 2009.
Enrique Mora, the EU political director for the talks, was in Tehran last Thursday to meet members of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, four months after discussions began between Iran and world powers.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has so far refused to resume economic talks with the United States in Vienna on both sides returning to compliance with the deal, under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for indirect sanctions relief.
But an EU minister says that Iran will hold talks with the EU in Brussels on Friday after Mora has visited the Iranian capital.
Western diplomats have said they are concerned that Tehran's new negotiating team under a president known as an anti-Western hardliner, unlike his pragmatist predecessor, can make new demands beyond what had already been agreed.
Iran has long denied any ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.