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IRAN

Geneva talks to iron out Iran nuclear details

Iran and world powers will meet in Geneva from Thursday to iron out remaining obstacles in implementing a historic nuclear deal struck in November, Iranian and EU officials said.

The two-day meeting will bring together deputy negotiators from Iran and the so-called P5+1 group of world powers, European Union foreign policy spokesman Michael Mann told AFP.
   
It was still not clear when the two sides' chief negotiators could meet, he added.
   
Iranian officials had also announced the meeting earlier Tuesday, with Tehran's foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham telling reporters that the talks would focus on "one or two remaining issues pending a political decision" before the deal can be implemented.
   
Technical experts from Iran and the EU-chaired P5+1 — comprising the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — held two sessions in Geneva in mid and late December as they seek to fine-tune a deal reached on November 24th after their foreign ministers rushed to the Swiss city for marathon talks.
   
Under the deal, Iran is to curb parts of its nuclear drive for six months in exchange for modest relief from international sanctions and a promise by Western powers not to impose new measures against the Iranian economy, which has been battered by the embargo.
 
In early December, experts also held four days of talks in Vienna — home of the International Atomic Energy Agency — but the Iranians walked out after Washington expanded its sanctions blacklist against Tehran.
   
Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi is Iran's nuclear pointman, and is scheduled to meet in Geneva with his EU counterpart Helga Schmid, the official IRNA news agency reported.
   
World powers have spent a decade holding on-off talks with the Islamic republic over its controversial nuclear ambitions.
 
The talks, which hit a wall amid tensions between the West and hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gathered pace after the election of relative moderate Hassan Rouhani, who succeeded him in August.
   
Amid signs of a thaw with the international community, Rouhani pledged transparency on the nuclear programme and engagement with major powers to try to remove the sanctions and thereby improve life for Iranians.
   
The sides are considering January 20 to begin implementing the deal, which is meant to buy time for diplomacy to clinch a lasting agreement that would allay suspicions that Iran is covertly pursing a nuclear weapons capability.
   
Iran denies wanting nuclear weapons but many in the international community suspect otherwise, and neither Israel — widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state — nor Washington have ruled out military action.

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TRIAL

Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists

Three leaders of an Iranian Arab separatist group pleaded not guilty to financing and promoting terrorism in Iran with Saudi Arabia's backing, as their trial opened in Denmark on Thursday.

Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists
File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The three risk 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Aged 39 to 50, the trio are members of the separatist organisation ASMLA (Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz), which is based in Denmark and the Netherlands and which Iran considers a terrorist group.

The three, one of whom is a Danish citizen, have been held in custody in Denmark since February 2020.

Gert Dyrn, lawyer for the eldest of the three, told AFP that in his client’s opinion “what they are charged with is legitimate resistance towards an oppressive regime.”

“They are not denying receiving money from multiple sources, including Saudi Arabia, to help the movement and help them accomplish their political aim,” Dyrn said. 

His client has lived as a refugee in Denmark since 2006. 

According to the charge sheet seen by AFP, the three received around 30 million kroner (four million euros, $4.9 million) for ASMLA and its armed branch, through bank accounts in Austria and the United Arab Emirates.

The trio is also accused of spying on people and organisations in Denmark between 2012 and 2020 for Saudi intelligence.

Finally, they are also accused of promoting terrorism and “encouraging the activities of the terrorist movement Jaish Al-Adl, which has activities in Iran, by supporting them with advice, promotion, and coordinating attacks.”

The case dates back to 2018 when one of the three was the target of a foiled attack on Danish soil believed to be sponsored by the Iranian regime in retaliation for the killing of 24 people in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, in September 2018.

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Tehran formally denied the attack plan in Denmark, but a Danish court last year jailed a Norwegian-Iranian for seven years for his role in the plot. 

That attack put Danish authorities on the trail of the trio’s ASMLA activities.

Sunni Saudi Arabia is the main rival in the Middle East of Shia Iran, and Tehran regularly accuses it, along with Israel and the United States, of supporting separatist groups.

Lawyer Gert Dyrn said this was “the first case in Denmark within terror law where you have to consider who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.”

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