Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive back in Geneva on Friday to rejoin nuclear talks between diplomats from Iran and six major world powers, the State Department said Friday.
Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that Kerry had spoken with Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s top foreign policy diplomat, and the negotiating team on the ground. In a Twitter message, Psaki said Kerry is going “with the goal of continuing to help narrow the differences and move closer to an agreement.”
Until the late-afternoon announcement, as other nations at the negotiating table began sending higher-level diplomats to Geneva for the current round of Iran talks, reporters and analysts were wondering whether Kerry would follow suit or continue sticking to his schedule in Washington.
That speculation ramped up mid-afternoon after word got out that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had arrived in Geneva to join the discussions, aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for relief from sanctions that have strangled the Iranian economy.
Just before 5 p.m. on Friday, William Hague, Britain’s foreign minister, tweeted that he would arrive in Geneva on Saturday to join the group: “I will join other E3+3 Foreign Ministers at Geneva #Iran talks tomorrow.” Simultaneously, news broke that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was already on his way to Geneva as well.