China, Russia, Iran to hold nuclear negotiations in Beijing on Friday

China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu will chair the meeting, Mao Ning, a spokesperson of its foreign ministry, told a regular press conference on Wednesday.

The meeting will follow a closed-door gathering of the United Nations Security Council in New York the same day regarding Iran’s expansion of its stocks of uranium.

Tehran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, the U.N. atomic watchdog IAEA has warned it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the weapons-grade level of roughly 90%.

Iran and three European countries have been holding talks on and off since 2021, three years after the United States left the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reinstated harsh sanctions against Iran.

The trio failed to live up to their promise of bringing Washington back to the agreement.

Tehran started to scale down its commitments under the JCPOA in a series of pre-announced and clear steps after witnessing the other parties’ failure to secure its interests under the agreement.