An Iraqi Shiite cleric holds a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei throughout a protest towards Israeli assaults on a number of cities throughout Iran, at a bridge resulting in the fortified Inexperienced Zone the place the U.S. Embassy is situated in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, June 19, 2025.
Hadi Mizban/AP
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Hadi Mizban/AP
PARIS – International ministers from the UK, France, and Germany are assembly with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva Friday, marking essentially the most vital diplomatic talks between Tehran and Western governments since Israel launched a shock offensive towards Iran one week in the past.
The talks revive what’s often known as the “E3,” a diplomatic group made up of the UK, France, and Germany, which led earlier negotiations with Iran within the early 2000s and helped dealer the 2015 nuclear deal beneath President Obama’s administration.
British International Secretary David Lammy referred to as the state of affairs “perilous” after assembly Thursday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Trump’s particular envoy to the Center East, Steve Witkoff.
“A window now exists throughout the subsequent two weeks to realize a diplomatic answer,” Lammy stated, referencing President Trump’s announcement that he would decide on whether or not the U.S. will strike Iran by early July.
Trump’s assertion, learn out loud by White Home Press Secretary Karoline Levitt on Thursday, tamped down hypothesis that the U.S. was poised to help Israel in its offensive by putting an Iranian nuclear facility.
Lammy and his French and German counterparts are urging Iran to return to nuclear negotiations. Iran, for its half, has signaled resistance whereas beneath assault.
“We don’t need to negotiate with anybody whereas the Zionist regime’s aggression continues,” Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on state tv Friday. He accused the U.S. of being complicit in Israeli strikes, citing social media posts from Trump earlier this week wherein he appeared to offer the U.S. partial credit score for management of Iran’s airspace.
“The demand for an finish to this battle has already begun,” Araghchi added. “It reveals how efficient the resistance of the Iranian folks has been and will probably be.”
In France, International Minister Jean-Noël Barrot defended his nation’s impartial stance, saying on nationwide tv Thursday that “France is all the time on the facet of worldwide regulation” and “has not participated in any preventive battle.” He famous that 1,000 French nationals stay in Iran.
Germany’s International Minister Johann Wadephul, in the meantime, stated Berlin was open to additional discussions with Iran if there’s a “severe willingness” from Tehran to supply assurances on its nuclear and missile packages.
These assurances, in response to Wadephul, would imply Iran renouncing enrichment of nuclear materials that may result in weaponization and would additionally embody lowering its missile program.
Israel and Iran traded extra strikes in a single day into Friday, with the Israeli army saying it struck dozens of Iranian army targets round Tehran and western Iran. In Israel, at the very least 5 folks had been injured after an Iranian missile struck a residential constructing within the southern metropolis of Be’er Sheva. The strike comes only a day after an Iranian missile hit Soroka Medical Heart, the most important hospital in southern Israel.
At the very least 24 folks have been killed by Iranian missile and drone strikes and a whole bunch extra injured for the reason that begin of the battle, in response to Israel’s prime minister’s workplace.
Israel’s strikes on Iran, in the meantime, have killed greater than 200 folks, in response to Iran’s Well being Ministry. However an impartial group referred to as the Human Rights Activists Information Company says it has recorded 657 deaths in Iran based mostly on nongovernmental sources.
NPR’s Rob Schmitz contributed reporting from Berlin.
