Tehran and the E3 international locations of France, Germany and the UK maintain consultations on Iran’s nuclear programme and different points.
Tehran, Iran – Iran has launched a twin German nationwide as its diplomats held extra consultations with European counterparts on sanctions and the best way to handle ramped-up tensions.
Iranian-German rights activist Nahid Taghavi was launched from jail in Iran and is again in Germany, in accordance with her daughter Mariam Claren, who posted an image of herself and her mom on X on Monday.
The Iranian judiciary and the Overseas Ministry didn’t instantly touch upon her launch.
The 70-year-old was arrested in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in October 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in jail after being convicted of forming a gaggle “with the aim of disrupting nationwide safety” and “spreading propaganda in opposition to the institution”.
Amnesty Worldwide described Taghavi as a “prisoner of conscience” and detention as “arbitrary”, saying she spent a very long time in solitary confinement regardless of well being situations and several other quick medical leaves.
Reacting to the information on Monday, German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock stated it’s a “nice second of pleasure that Nahid Taghavi can lastly embrace her household once more”.
Her launch is available in every week stuffed with developments on prisoners involving Iran and the West.
Each Switzerland and France summoned Iranian envoys to protest their nationals being in jail, a day after Iran reported the “suicide” of a Swiss national in a jail in Semnan, some 180km (112 miles) east of Tehran.
Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was released by Iran final week after spending three weeks in detention in Tehran’s Evin jail. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally visited United States President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to barter a decision.
The 29-year-old author and podcaster was arrested for “violating the legal guidelines of the Islamic Republic” after coming into Iran on a daily journalist visa.
Her arrest got here three days after Italy detained Iranian nationwide Mohammad Abedini on the behest of the US, which accuses him and one other Iranian nationwide of transferring drone know-how to Iran.
That know-how, Washington alleges, was linked with a drone assault on a US army base in Jordan final yr that killed three American soldiers.
Abedini arrived in Tehran on Sunday, officers confirmed, whereas sustaining that his case was circuitously linked with the arrest or launch of the Italian journalist.
In mid-December, Iran sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in prison for “collaborating with the hostile US authorities”.
Talks in Geneva
In the meantime, Iran and three main European powers, Germany, France and the UK, started extra diplomatic talks in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday afternoon.
Iranian Overseas Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei informed reporters earlier within the day {that a} fundamental focus for Tehran is lifting sanctions.
The conferences can’t be described as amounting to “negotiations” and are relatively a continuation of “consultations” held in December, he stated. Baghaei added {that a} “big selection” of subjects can be mentioned in Geneva, together with the nuclear difficulty.
The primary Trump administration imposed sweeping US sanctions on the Iranian financial system within the aftermath of its 2018 unilateral withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear take care of world powers, the Joint Complete Plan of Motion (JCPOA).
The European Union has additionally imposed waves of sanctions on Iran amid the conflict in Ukraine, with the West accusing Iran of arming Russia. Tehran denies being an arms provider to the conflict, saying it solely despatched some drones months earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Iran’s bilateral relations with Germany have additionally been deteriorating, with Taghavi’s launch coming months after the dying of one other imprisoned German-Iranian twin nationwide sparked a diplomatic row between Berlin and Tehran.
On the finish of October, Baerbock ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in Germany after Iranian state media reported that German-Iranian prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who was sentenced to dying in 2023 for prices associated to “terrorism”, died proper earlier than his execution.
