Iranian FM says Europe replaced by Tehran's "effective" regional friends in nuclear talks

TEHRAN, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Saturday condemned Europe's hostile approach toward Tehran, saying that Europe, once a "key interlocutor" in nuclear talks, has been replaced by Iran's "effective and helpful" friends in West Asia.

"This decline, with performance preferred over substance, holds important messages," Araghchi posted on social media platform X. It shows that the European Union (EU) is unable to understand what is happening in Iran and has strategically lost its geopolitical weight in the West Asia region, he said.

Araghchi said that the "paralysis and irrelevance" of the EU and the E3 nations -- France, Britain, and Germany -- are evident in the dynamics of the current U.S.-Iran nuclear talks.

"Once a key interlocutor, Europe is now nowhere to be seen. Instead, our friends in the region are far more effective and helpful than an empty-handed and peripheral E3," he said.

On Jan. 29, the EU added Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps to the bloc's terrorist list, a decision Iran strongly condemned later in the day as "hostile and provocative."■