Tabnak – Recent tensions between Iran and the US and the subsequent ambiguities surrounding the JCPOA have made many foreign officials to visit Iran for talks aimed at finding political solutions. After Japan’s FM visit to Tehran, a high-ranking EU official will travel to the Iranian capital with the JCPOA top on her agenda.
The secretary general of the European Union's External Action Service (EEAS) is to pay an official visit to Iran this week as part of a tour of the Persian Gulf to discuss ways to ease tensions in the region and preserve a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.
Helga Schmid started her official visit to countries in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday with the United Arab Emirates on a tour that will also take her to Oman, Qatar and Iran, the EEAS said on its website.
The visit takes place against the backdrop of the existing tensions in the region, the report said, adding that it will be an opportunity to underline the call of the European Union to defuse regional tensions, find ways towards de-escalation and promote dialogue.
As part of the EU efforts to promote stability in the region, the visit will also aim at discussing the preservation of Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which continues to be a key element of the non-proliferation architecture and a key pillar of security, both globally and in the region, it added.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has arrived in Iran on a first visit by a Japanese premier to Tehran in more than 40 years, with a plan to help ease tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States.
Prime Minister Abe arrived in Tehran on Wednesday and was officially welcomed by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the Saadabad Palace.
During his two-day visit to Iran, Abe will meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. He is scheduled to meet with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Thursday.
In the same vein, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas traveled to Iran at the start of the week with a declared aim of addressing ways to save the JCPOA, following the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the deal in May last year, and amid tensions between Iran and the US.
The top German diplomat met and held talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord. Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord. However, the EU’s failure of ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under JCPOA in May 2019.
