British minister to visit Iran on Sunday for talks on tensions
Britain’s Middle East minister Andrew Murrison will visit
Iran on Sunday for “frank and constructive” talks, the Foreign Office said,
amid escalating tension between Tehran and Washington after the downing of an
unmanned US drone.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he aborted a
military strike to retaliate for the drone incident because it could have
killed 150 people, and signaled he was open to talks with Tehran.
Iran responded on Saturday by saying it would respond firmly
to any threat against it, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
“At this time of increased regional tensions and at a
crucial period for the future of the nuclear deal, this visit is an opportunity
for further open, frank and constructive engagement with the government of
Iran,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Murrison, a junior minister in the Foreign Office, will call
for urgent de-escalation in the region and raise concerns about “Iran’s
regional conduct and its threat to cease complying with the nuclear deal to
which the UK remains fully committed,” the statement said.
Britain is one of six foreign signatories to the 2015 deal
with Iran in which the mullah regime agreed to suspend its nuclear program in
return for a lifting of economic sanctions.
But Trump pulled the United States out of that deal and
reimposed sanctions on Tehran. The three European signatories, which also
include Germany and France, have been trying along with Russia and China to
salvage the deal.
Iran has said it will not give the European powers more time
beyond July 8 to save the nuclear deal. It has said it is ready to go through
with a threat to enrich uranium to a higher level if Europe cannot shield
Tehran from the US sanctions.