EU’s foreign policy chief Borrell meets Iran’s new foreign minister for first time

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met Iran’s new Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Tuesday in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, the EU said in a statement on Wednesday.

The meeting was scheduled in the absence of a ministerial meeting of the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal in New York during the annual UN gathering of world leaders.

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“The Iranian Foreign Minister assured of the willingness to resume negotiations at an early date,” the EU said in a statement. “High Representative Borrell ... underlined once again the great importance of a quick resumption of the Vienna talks.”

The world powers have held six rounds of indirect talks between the United States and Iran in Vienna to try and work out how both can return to compliance with the nuclear pact, which was abandoned by former US President Donald Trump in 2018.

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