The Iranian government announced on Monday that a meeting will be held in January with the members of the E3 - France, the United Kingdom and Germany - to address the situation of Tehran's nuclear program in the face of rising tensions.
"The talks will continue, with the agreement of the parties," said the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baqaei, adding that "during the last week of January" there will be a new meeting "with the same content and nature" as the previous ones.
"We will present our demands and concerns regarding the situation in the region and elsewhere," he explained, quoted by the Iranian news agency Tasnim.
"Iran has never been closed to participating in the negotiating table," he stressed, adding that "over the past two decades, there has always been a commitment [by the Iranian authorities] to participate in dialogue and to address concerns."
Therefore, he concluded, "we need to look at the other side to see who is to blame."
The announcement comes days after UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo urged the UN Security Council to "urgently resume" negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
Ahead of the meeting at the international organization, the E3 countries issued a joint statement saying that "[Iran's] stockpiles of highly enriched uranium have reached unprecedented levels, without credible civil justification".
Iran, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France and Germany signed a nuclear pact in 2015, compliance with which has led to the lifting of economic and financial sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the United States and the European Union.
The agreement established restrictions on the Iranian program in exchange for aid and the lifting of economic sanctions, but in 2018, the United States -- under the Donald Trump administration -- decided to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement and reinstate sanctions.
Despite several calls for Washington to return to the pact, the United States did not change its position, which ended up leading Tehran to abandon some of its commitments and increase its reserves of enriched materials, approaching the level required to produce an atomic weapon, according to the parameters of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ten days ago, the E3 countries raised, in a letter addressed to the United Nations Security Council, the possibility of reimposing sanctions on Iran to prevent it from developing its nuclear program.
"The E3 remains committed to a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue," the European states said, adding that they were determined to "use all diplomatic instruments to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon, including the use of 'snapback'", the mechanism that allows members of the Iran nuclear deal to reimpose sanctions on Iran.
"We are rapidly approaching a critical moment for UN Security Council resolution 2231. Iran must curtail its nuclear programme to create a political environment conducive to meaningful progress and a negotiated solution," they added.
Resolution 2231, which underpins the 2015 deal, expires in October 2025, 10 years after the agreement came into force.
On Tuesday, the Security Council is due to discuss Iran's nuclear programme, which the country claims is its right as long as it is for civilian purposes, such as energy production, and denies seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon.
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