TEHRAN: A top Iranian diplomat expressed disappointment on Sunday after meeting a minister from Britain’s Foreign Office amid escalating regional tensions, saying the talks were “repetitive”, state news agency IRNA reported.

Minister of State for the Middle East Andrew Murrison had the “usual talking points”, said Kamal Kharazi, the head of the Strategic Council of Foreign Relations at Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

These included saying a European payment mechanism to help Iran with US sanctions “will soon become operational, that Britain has always supported the JCPOA and has its own problems with America ... such talks that have always been repetitive,” Kharazi added.

The JCPOA is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a multilateral 2015 nuclear deal that the US unilaterally withdrew from in May last year.

Washington has since re-imposed biting sanctions against the Islamic Republic, despite Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia remaining committed to the deal.

Murrison is expected to meet deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi later on Sunday.

Murrison was to call for an “urgent de-escalation” and raise British concerns “about Iran’s regional conduct and its threat to cease complying with the nuclear deal”, according to a statement by Britain’s Foreign Office.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have flared further after Iran on Thursday shot down a US drone.

Iran said the drone violated its airspace — a claim the US denies — near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2019