{"id":19380,"date":"2025-03-14T12:36:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T06:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=19380"},"modified":"2025-03-14T12:36:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T06:51:28","slug":"china-hosts-iranian-russian-diplomats-for-nuclear-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/china-hosts-iranian-russian-diplomats-for-nuclear-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"China hosts Iranian, Russian diplomats for nuclear talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>China hosted Russian and Iranian diplomats on Friday for talks Beijing hopes will restart long-stalled negotiations on Tehran&#8217;s nuclear program.<\/p>\n<p>The United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 deal, which imposed curbs on Tehran&#8217;s nuclear development in return for sanctions relief, during US President Donald Trump&#8217;s first term.<\/p>\n<p>Since his return to the White House in January, the Republican president has called for a new nuclear deal with Iran, but Tehran says no such agreement is possible so long as punishing sanctions remain in place.<\/p>\n<p>The effort to secure a pact was given new urgency last month when the UN&#8217;s nuclear watchdog said Iran had significantly increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.<\/p>\n<p>Beijing has said it hopes Friday&#8217;s talks will &#8220;strengthen communication and coordination, to resume dialogue and negotiation at an early time&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A readout of the meeting by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the three diplomats &#8220;exchanged views on the Iran nuclear issue and other issues of common concern&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>State media did not share any further details of the discussion, which was attended by China&#8217;s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has reinstated his &#8220;maximum pressure&#8221; policy of sanctions against Iran, mirroring his approach during his first term.<\/p>\n<p>This week, he sent a letter to Tehran urging nuclear talks &#8212; warning of possible military action if it refuses.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran said the letter, which the US President said was addressed to Iran&#8217;s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was currently &#8220;being reviewed&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ultimately, the United States should lift the sanctions,&#8221; Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview published Thursday by the government&#8217;s official newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will enter into direct negotiations when we are on an equal footing, free from pressure and threats, and are confident that the national interests of the people will be guaranteed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The same day, Washington upped its pressure campaign by imposing sanctions on Iranian Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad.<\/p>\n<p>The US Treasury Department also blacklisted the owners or operators of vessels it said were engaged in transporting Iranian oil trade to China.<\/p>\n<p>In February, a report by the UN&#8217;s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had significantly increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to 60 percent purity &#8212; close to the 90 percent needed for an atomic bomb.<\/p>\n<p>Iran&#8217;s supreme leader Khamenei said this week that his country &#8220;does not have nuclear weapons&#8221; and was &#8220;not seeking&#8221; them. Tehran has previously said its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.<br \/>\n&#8212;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China hosted Russian and Iranian diplomats on Friday for talks Beijing hopes will restart long-stalled negotiations on Tehran&#8217;s nuclear program. The United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 deal, which imposed curbs on Tehran&#8217;s nuclear development in return for sanctions relief, during US President Donald Trump&#8217;s first term. Since his return to the White House [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19382,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19380\/revisions\/19382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}