Iran detains 2 Europeans; EU envoy in Tehran about nuke deal

Iran detains 2 Europeans; EU envoy in Tehran about nuke deal

AP News- May 11 2022

Nasser Karimi

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Shortly before the European Union envoy met Iran’s nuclear negotiator in Tehran on Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to salvage Iran’s atomic deal with world powers, the country’s Intelligence Ministry announced that authorities have detained two Europeans.

Photos surfaced of the EU coordinator of the nuclear talks, Enrique Mora, looking stern as he shook hands awkwardly with Iranian negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani, who beamed and waved.

The Intelligence Ministry gave scant details about the detained Europeans, saying only that they shared the same nationality, which was not identified, and sought to “take advantage” of the protests springing up in several Iranian provinces as laborers and teachers press for better wages.

The two Europeans are being held on vague charges of planning to cause “chaos, social disorder, and instability,” authorities said.

The provocation came as Tehran vows to execute an imprisoned Swedish researcher later this month — a case that coincides with a landmark war crimes trial of an Iranian official in Sweden.

And, in yet another escalation, Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard reportedly shelled Kurdish targets in northern Iraq. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry condemned the strike on “a number of sites” in the region, placing blame on Iran. A local official said the shelling caused no casualties.

Wednesday’s events conjured those of June 13, 2019 — the day Guard forces allegedly attacked a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf at the same time that Japan’s prime minister visited Iran to make a diplomatic push for dialogue between Tehran and Washington.

Iran’s moves could have obviated negotiations with the visiting EU coordinator. Nonetheless, the schedule proceeded. There were no immediate details from Kani’s meeting with Mora, who has sought to break the deadlock that has prevailed since talks to revive the nuclear deal paused in late March.

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