European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Saturday started a landmark visit to Iran, meeting with the deputy Iranian foreign minister as part of warming relations between the two after "substantive and useful" expert-level talks earlier in the week. Ashton was seen arriving at the Parsian Azadi Hotel in Tehran, were she met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi. Iran wants Western and U.N. sanctions that are severely hurting its oil-dependent economy to be lifted, having won limited relief in exchange for curbing its most sensitive nuclear work under the six-month Geneva deal, which took effect on January 20. Ashton said there was still a long way to go. "As you all know we've started the talks on the hope will lead to a final and comprehensive agreement. It will be difficult. There's a lot to do," she said. "There have been experts' meetings going on in Vienna these last few days and they have started to address in detail to drill down and we'll meet again in Vienna shortly but the purpose of this visit was to respond to the invitation to the foreign minister in my capacity as the EU high representative," she added. Seeking to build on an interim agreement reached late last year in Geneva, Iran and the major powers aim to hammer out a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over Iran's nuclear activities by late July. Both sides have made clear their political will to reach a long-term accord and have scheduled a series of meetings in the coming months. But they also acknowledge that there are still big differences over the future scope of Iran's nuclear program and that success is far from guaranteed. Ashton said her visit to the Iranian capital was a vital part of diplomacy. "I think it is extremely important at one level and that is that we've responded, because I come on behalf of the European Union, to the outreach that's been clear from President [Hassan] Rouhani, from Foreign Minister Zarif and we've come to establish for ourselves a situation here in terms of the potential for the relationship," she said. "But we also recognize that that relationship is in many ways dependent on whether Iran, by dealing with the nuclear issue, demonstrates that it is clearly looking for a different road," she added. Western officials want Iran to significantly scale back its uranium enrichment activities to ensure that it would be unable to build a nuclear bomb quickly if it ever decided to do so. Iran denies allegations that it is seeking the technical know-how and means to assemble nuclear weapons and says it will not shut any of its nuclear sites. Ashton's trip is her first to Iran and the first by an EU foreign policy chief since 2008. Bilateral, regional and international issues will be discussed during the visit, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Iranian state media and newspapers have given high importance to Ashton's visit, with some reformist media calling it "an achievement" for Rouhani. At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "I want to ask [Ashton] if she asked her Iranian hosts about the arms shipment to terrorist groups," referring to the Klos C ship the Israeli Navy intercepted in the Red Sea last week. "If she didn't ask, why didn't she-" Netanyahu continued. "After all, no one has the right to ignore the true and murderous actions of the regime in Tehran. I think it would be proper for the international community to refer to Iran's true policies, not its propaganda."
Credit: Reuters
The visit came after an invitation from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, marking a thaw in relations since the beginning of the year.
