Tehran and the E3 countries of France, Germany and the UK hold consultations on Iran’s nuclear programme and other issues.
Tehran, Iran – Iran has released a dual German national as its diplomats held more consultations with European counterparts on sanctions and how to manage ramped-up tensions.
Iranian-German rights activist Nahid Taghavi was released from prison in Iran and is back in Germany, according to her daughter Mariam Claren, who posted a picture of herself and her mother on X on Monday.
The Iranian judiciary and the Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment on her release.
The 70-year-old was arrested in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in October 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of forming a group “with the purpose of disrupting national security” and “spreading propaganda against the establishment”.
Amnesty International described Taghavi as a “prisoner of conscience” and detention as “arbitrary”, saying she spent a long time in solitary confinement despite health conditions and several short medical leaves.
Reacting to the news on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said it is a “great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally embrace her family again”.
Her release comes in a week filled with developments on prisoners involving Iran and the West.
Both Switzerland and France summoned Iranian envoys to protest their nationals being in prison, a day after Iran reported the “suicide” of a Swiss national in a jail in Semnan, some 180km (112 miles) east of Tehran.
Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was released by Iran last week after spending three weeks in detention in Tehran’s Evin prison. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally visited United States President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to negotiate a resolution.
The 29-year-old writer and podcaster was arrested for “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic” after entering Iran on a regular journalist visa.
Her arrest came three days after Italy detained Iranian national Mohammad Abedini at the behest of the US, which accuses him and another Iranian national of transferring drone technology to Iran.
That technology, Washington alleges, was linked with a drone attack on a US military base in Jordan last year that killed three American soldiers.
Abedini arrived in Tehran on Sunday, officials confirmed, while maintaining that his case was not directly linked with the arrest or release of the Italian journalist.
In mid-December, Iran sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in prison for “collaborating with the hostile US government”.
Talks in Geneva
Meanwhile, Iran and three major European powers, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, began more diplomatic talks in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday afternoon.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters earlier in the day that a main focus for Tehran is lifting sanctions.
The meetings cannot be described as amounting to “negotiations” and are rather a continuation of “consultations” held in December, he said. Baghaei added that a “wide range” of topics will be discussed in Geneva, including the nuclear issue.
The first Trump administration imposed sweeping US sanctions on the Iranian economy in the aftermath of its 2018 unilateral withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The European Union has also imposed waves of sanctions on Iran amid the war in Ukraine, with the West accusing Iran of arming Russia. Tehran denies being an arms supplier to the war, saying it only sent some drones months before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Iran’s bilateral relations with Germany have also been deteriorating, with Taghavi’s release coming months after the death of another imprisoned German-Iranian dual national sparked a diplomatic row between Berlin and Tehran.
At the end of October, Baerbock ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in Germany after Iranian state media reported that German-Iranian prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who was sentenced to death in 2023 for charges related to “terrorism”, died right before his execution.
